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Black-tailed Hornet
Vespa ducalis
Vespa ducalis, the black-tailed hornet, is a species of hornet in the genus Vespa. It was described by Smith in 1852. In Japan, it is called himesuzumebachi (姫雀蜂; literally: "princess sparrow wasp").
From the article Vespa ducalis on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA), quoted section by section
Description
Workers have a body length of 24–32 mm; the queen is about 37 mm. They have a distinctive black tail. They are only slightly smaller than the Asian giant hornet (Vespa mandarinia), which has a body length of about 30–55 mm.
Range & habitat
It is found in Asia, including China (mainland), Hong Kong, India (northeast), Japan, the Korean Peninsula, Myanmar, Nepal, Siberia in Russia, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam (north and central parts).
Wikipedia: “Distribution”
What it does
The larvae of Vespa ducalis feed primarily on the pupae and larvae of paper wasps. Adult Vespa ducalis often attack paper wasp nests to hunt larvae, typically ignoring the adults. They may repeatedly return to the same colony to raid it.
Wikipedia: “Behaviour”
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Where it lives
Recorded sightings
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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
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In the stacks
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Every page naming Vespa ducalis in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 502802.