Asian giant hornet

Hornet

Template:Regnum:	Animalia
Template:Phylum:	Arthropoda
Template:Subphylum:	Hexapoda
Template:Classis:	Insecta
Template:Subclassis:	Pterygota
Template:Infraclassis:	Neoptera
Template:Superordo:	Endopterygota
Template:Ordo:	Hymenoptera
Template:Subordo:	Apocrita
Template:Superfamilia:	Vespoidea
Template:Familia:	Vespidae
Template:Subfamilia:	Vespinae
Template:Genus:	Vespa
[[{{{1}}}{{{2}}} {{{3}}}\|{{{1}}}. {{{3}}}]]:	Mandarinia

The Asian Giant Hornet (Vespa Mandarinia), the world's largest hornet, is a native to the mountains of Japan. Its body length is between 27 mm (1.1 inches) and 45 mm (1.8 inches), with a wingspan of about 76 mm (3 inches). Queens may reach a length of 55 mm (2.2 inches).

File:Asian giant hornet head.jpg

The head of the hornet is orange, and quite wide in comparison to other hornet species. The compound eyes and ocelli are dark brown and the antennae are dark brown with orange scapes. The clypeus (the shieldlike plate on the front of the head) is orange and coarsely punctured; the posterior side of the clypeus has narrow rounded lobes. The mandible is large and orange with a black tooth (inner biting surface).

The thorax and propodeum (the segment which forms the posterior part of the thorax) of the Asian giant hornet has a distinctive golden tint and a large scutellum (a shieldlike scale on the thorax) that has a deeply-impressed medial line; the postscutellum (the plate behind the scutellum) bulges and overhangs the propodeum. The hornet's forelegs are orange with dark brown tarsi (the distal - furthest down - part of the leg), the midlegs and hindlegs are dark brown. [[wings (appendage}|Wings]] are a dark brownish-gray; tegulae also brown.

The gaster (The portion of the abdomen behind the thorax-abdomen connection) is dark brown with a white, powdery covering; with narrow yellow bands at the posterior margins of the tergite, the sixth segment is entirely yellow.

Geographic Distribution

Mostly the mountains of Japan, may be found in most of Asia: southeastern regions of Asian Russia (Primorskii Krai), Korea, China, Japan, Indochina, Nepal, India , Sri Lanka, Thailand

Sting

The sting of the Asian Giant Hornet is especially potent: it injects an venom with an enzyme so strong it can dissolve human tissue. Masato Ono, an entomologist at Tamagawa University near Tokyo, describes the sensation as feeling "like a hot nail through my leg." [1]

External links