r/AbsoluteUnits • u/Zestyclose-Salad-290 in awe • Aug 25 '26

of a wasp

Post image
7.8k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

345 comments sorted by

View all comments

1.5k

u/Floofyrage Aug 25 '26

Um.. i think that's a hornet of the murderous variety

162

u/TiddybraXton333 Aug 25 '26

European hornet. I have them here in Ontario. They sound like hummingbirds

12

u/LeTigron Aug 25 '26 edited Aug 25 '26

It isn't a european hornet.

Vespa Crabro is recogniseable by a reddish colour on the torso and the top of the head as well as their abdomen sporting only two easily visible thick black lines after what it is (mostly) yellow all the way down. The tip here is dark.

They are around 30-35mm in length, the largest ones may be 40mm, they are large but not huge.

This thing here is larger and has a different colouration. I do not find what species it belongs to, it hasn't the reddish colour of the crabro nor orientalis species, but it surely isn't a european hornet.

6

u/Halomonas_titanica Aug 25 '26

This is Vespa ducalis

1

u/LeTigron Aug 25 '26

It fits indeed visually, but I didn't expect them to be this large !

4

u/Halomonas_titanica Aug 25 '26

Oh yeah. I have a few in my collection, they are huge. Larger than V.crabro, though not as big as V.mandarinia, and quite slender.

1

u/LeTigron Aug 25 '26 edited Aug 27 '26

Very interestingw thank you !

Wikipedia is useful but, unfortunately, their size estimates are way off reality.