Vespa ducalis

Vespa ducalis, the black-tailed hornet, is a hornet and an insect in the genus Vespa. It was described by Smith in 1852. In Japan, it is called himesuzumebachi (姫雀蜂, literally: princess sparrow wasp)

Vespa ducalis
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Family:	Vespidae
Genus:	Vespa
Species:	V. ducalis
Binomial name
Vespa ducalis Smith, 1852
Synonyms
Vespa matsumurai Sonan, 1935 Vespa esakii Sonan, 1935 Vespa pulchra Buysson, 1905

Description

The 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.

Distribution

It is found in Asia in places such as China (mainland), Hong Kong, India (northeast part), Japan, the Korean Peninsula, Myanmar, Nepal, Siberia in Russia, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam (north and central part).

Behaviour

The larvae of Vespa ducalis basically only eat the pupae and larvae of paper wasps and so adult Vespa ducalis will often attack the nests of paper wasps and hunt the larvae, while ignoring the adults. They will habitually return to the same target colony to raid it.

Nest

The colonies it creates are the smallest of those in the genus Vespa. The nest is underground and on average contains around 50 hornets.

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  Vespa ducalis attacking the nest of a paper wasp
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  Black-tailed hornet in Japan