European hornet

This is a European hornet, Really imposing animals! you can clearly hear them flying around you. I took this picture in our orchard, they take other flying insects down with great ease, but here you can clearly see the scars on the eyes other insects left behind.

comments (1)

RMFelix

Lion

This is a powerful hornet indeed! Usually some honey farmers mistakenly confuse this hornet with the Asian wasp, due to fear that they have to lose bees due to an wasp attack. Their morphology is quite different,

https://ilmieledileo.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/vespa_velutina_confronto.jpg

V. crabro is a wasp barely considered although it represents no problem for honey production since the Apis mellifera has defense mechanisms to combat a V. crabro attack, while it is most insufficient for invasive V. velutina, for which they don't have no way of possible defense. It is always good to remember that, despite its impressiveness V. crabro is a friendly wasp! :)

Great capture, as always! Your approach is remarkable, beautiful series! Cheers* Posted 4 years ago, modified 4 years ago