Oriental Hornet

The adult hornet has two pairs of wings and a body measuring between 25 and 35 mm (0.98 and 1.38 in) long. Drones and workers are smaller in size than the queen. V. orientalis is a reddish-brown color and has distinctive thick yellow bands on the abdomen and yellow patches on the head between the eyes. It has very strong jaws and will bite if provoked. Females (workers and the queen) have an ovipositor, which is a specialized organ shaped like a tube that is used for laying eggs. The ovipositor extends from the end of the abdomen and is also used as a stinger. Males (drones) can be distinguished from workers by the number of segments on their antenna. Drones have 13 segments, while workers only have 12. The Oriental hornet looks similar to the European hornet (V. crabro) and should not be confused with the Asian giant hornet (V. mandarinia) of East Asia.

Oriental hornets can be found in Central Asia, southwestern Asia from Armenia and Turkey to India and Nepal, throughout the Middle East, in Northeast Africa, in some Afrotropical countries such as Ethiopia and Somalia, and in parts of Southern Europe: Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Albania, Greece, Spain, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Malta, Sicily, Sardinia and the southern half of peninsular Italy. Oriental hornets have been introduced by humans into additional locations, including Chile, Madagascar, Mexico, and Xinjiang, China, as well as the occasional introduction via fruit into Belgium and the United Kingdom. The Oriental hornet is the only member of the genus Vespa that can be found in desert climates such as those in North Africa, the Middle East, and parts of southwestern Asia.

Nests. The Oriental hornet typically lives in nests that it digs underground. On the roof base of each comb cell one or more mineral granules of polycrystalline material is attached. A nest contains multiple combs in which the colony lives. While nests are most commonly found under ground, some paper nests are constructed in protective hollows such as inside hollow trees, in shipping containers, parked vehicles, and aircraft. To construct the paper nests, the workers strip the bark from twigs, tree branches, and shrubs to collect fiber.

V. orientalis is a type of social wasp. Individuals live collectively in colonies with one queen and thousands of workers. Social wasps are unusual in their practice of altruism in which nonreproductive individuals work for the benefit of the colony. This occurs because all individuals in a colony are closely related.

Social structure. Within a colony, the caste system is dominated by the queen that is the only reproductive female in the colony. Subordinate to the queen are the workers (daughters) and drones (sons). Like the queen, drones solely serve reproductive roles. The workers are responsible for the rest of the labor. Workers specialize in the performance of different tasks. Workers are responsible for foraging for food, providing shelter, defending the colony, and caring for the colony's brood, which consist of the queen's offspring.

Communication. Oriental hornets communicate through sound vibrations. The three main types of vibrations used to communicate are taps to the queen, awakening taps, and larval hunger signals. When workers tap while facing the queen, three effects are noted: the queen starts to search the combs for vacant cells in which to lay her eggs, the workers go back to performing their typical duties, and hunger signals by larvae cease immediately and are not resumed for at least 30 minutes. …