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Monday 31 August 2009

Cretan Hornets

These are Vespa Orientalis. According to the pics on Wikipedia. The diameter of the coin is 27.3 mm. So it's big. And scary. But (I now know) has a sting which is no more dangerous than a wasp (yellowjacket), and they are less aggressive than a wasp.

I caught this one taking a swim in our pool. I helped it on its way, I'm afraid, because I wanted to photograph it. The previous day I had seen one kidnapping a bee from its hive. So I felt its species had it coming.

In photo below is same specimen plus a regular wasp.

In photo below I tracked them down to a wall of a cemetery, behind which they were nesting.

3 comments:

  1. It's officially the year of the wasp as posted by me last week! They're the worst they've been for a decade apparently.

    And I've had hornets on my raspberries lately :O

    ReplyDelete
  2. My new beekeeping friend Anna has had a colony of bees wiped out by wasps.

    I have hornets in my wasp trap. Photo to follow.

    S

    ReplyDelete

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