The Asian giant hornet is native to temperate and tropical East Asia, South Asia, Mainland Southeast Asia, and parts of the Russian Far East. It was also found in the Pacific Northwest of North America in late 2019, with a few more additional sightings in 2020. If they become established, it is claimed that the hornets could decimate bee populations in the United States. Authorities have asked members of the public to be alert and report any sightings of these hornets, which are expected to become active in April 2020.
About Asian giant hornet in brief
The Asian giant hornet is native to temperate and tropical East Asia, South Asia, Mainland Southeast Asia, and parts of the Russian Far East. It was also found in the Pacific Northwest of North America in late 2019, with a few more additional sightings in 2020. The hornet has a body length of 45 millimetres, a wingspan around 75 mm, and a stinger 6 mm long, which injects a large amount of potent venom. It feeds primarily on larger insects, colonies of other eusocial insects, tree sap, and honey from honey bee colonies. If they become established, it is claimed that the hornets could decimate bee populations in the United States. Authorities have asked members of the public to be alert and report any sightings of these hornets, which are expected to become active in April 2020, within about 80km of one another within a few months. The Asian giant Hornet is often confused with the yellow-legged hornet, also known as the Asian hornet, an invasive species of major concern across Europe, including the UK. Regardless of sex, the hornet’s head is a light shade of orange and its antennae are brown with a yellow-orange base. Its eyes and ocelli are dark brown to black. Its orange mandible contains a black tooth that it uses for digging. Its thorax is dark brown, with two grey wings varying in span from 35 to 76 mm. Its forelegs are brighter than the mid and hind legs.
The abdomen alternates between bands of dark brown or black, and ayellow-orange hue. The sixth segment is yellow. The queens are considerably larger than workers, while workers are between 35 and 40mm. The reproductive anatomy is consistent between the two, but workers do not reproduce. Drones are similar to females, but lack stingers. This is a consistent feature among the Hymenoptera. V. mandarinia is distinguished from other hornets by its pronounced clypeus and large genae. The most closely related species within the species group is V. soror. The former subspecies referred to as V. m. japonica has not been considered valid since 1997. The most recent revision in 2020 has eliminated all of the subspecies rankings entirely, with japonica and nobilis now relegated to informal non-taxonomic names for different color forms. The first confirmed sightings of the Asian gianthornet in North America were confirmed in 2019. DNA analysis that the specimens collected in 2019 were from two different parent populations, Japanese Korean in BC and South Korean in Washington. This suggests that two simultaneous introductions of the Japanese hornet occurred in America within about about 80 km of each other within April 2020. In cases of multiple hornets stinging simultaneously, a human can kill a human. The queen can exceed 50mm, while workers can exceed 35 mm.
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This page is based on the article Asian giant hornet published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 04, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
