The Oriental hornet (Vespa orientalis) is a social insect species of the family Vespidae. It can be found in Southwest Asia, Northeast Africa, the island of Madagascar (but no reports have been made of its presence on the island for many years), the Middle East, Central Asia, and parts of Southern Europe. Oriental hornets have also been found in a few isolated locations such as Mexico and Chile due to human introduction. The Oriental hornet lives in seasonal colonies consisting of caste system dominated by a queen. The hornet builds its nests underground and communicates using sound vibrations. The hornet has a yellow stripe on its cuticle (exoskeleton), which can absorb sunlight to generate a small electrical potential, and this might help supply energy for digging. The adult hornet eats nectar and fruits and scavenges for insects and animal proteins to feed to its young. Because they are scavengers, the hornets may also serve as a transmitter of disease following consumption of infected plants. The hornets are a primary pest to honey bees, attacking bee colonies to obtain honey and animal proteins. The sting of an Oriental hornet can be quite painful to humans and some humans are allergic to stings.
Taxonomy and phylogeny
The Oriental hornet (V. orientalis) belongs to the family Vespidae, which consists of wasps, hornets, and yellowjackets. It is a member of the genus Vespa, which constitutes true hornets. V. orientalis has unique adaptations to arid climates, which has made it difficult to assess its phylogenetic relationship to other species of the genus Vespa, based on morphological data alone. Thus, only recently has the use of molecular phylogenetics given evidence that V. orientalis is most closely related to Vespa affinis and Vespa mocsaryana. While a history exists of recognizing subspecies within many of the hornets, including V. orientalis, the most recent taxonomic revision of the genus treats all subspecific names in the genus Vespa as synonyms, effectively relegating them to no more than informal names for regional color forms.
Description and identification
The adult hornet has two pairs of wings and a body measuring between 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.
Distribution
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 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.
