EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week

Lesser Banded Hornets at the Nest

Lesser Banded Hornet (Vespa affinis), Family Vespidae
Kaziranga National Park, Assam, India

Explanation:  Commonly found through southeast Asia is this strikingly-patterned member of the wasp family, a lesser banded hornet.  They are one of the smaller-bodied hornet species.  

They usually build their paper nests high in the subcanopy of trees.  The nest is often elongated or pear-shaped.  

The architecture of the nest is quite striking.  One study (Sengupta and Ghorai 2023) noted that the nest is constructed like a spiral staircase with two large entrance cavities.

But beware, lesser banded hornets will defend their nest with stings and attacks.  Indeed, multiple stings from this species have been known to cause fatal acute pulmonary oedema and acute renal failure in at least two cases (Kularatne et al. 2014).  

They feed on a variety of foods including nectar, fruit, carrion, insects, and more.  

The species has also been introduced into the United States, Australia, and New Zealand, and might pose concerns for its competition with native species.  

However, it is known to feed on honeybees, so perhaps it is serving a useful function locally to reduce the introduced honeybee Apis mellifera found in some of these introduced locations.  "Useful" because the introduced honeybee often out-competes native bumblebee species that are key pollinators of native plants and agricultural crops.  

Oh what a tangled web (or tangled paper wasp nest) we weave, when we introduce exotic species around this world!

Information:
    Kularatne, K., T. Kannangare, A. Jayasena, A. Jayasekera, R. Waduge, K. Weerakoon, and S.A.M. Kularatne.  Fatal acute pulmonary oedema and acute renal failure following multiple wasp/hornet (Vespa affinis) stings in Sri Lanka: two case reports.  Journal of Medical Case Reports 8:188. https://doi.org/10.1186/1752-1947-8-188.
    Sengupta, P., and N. Ghorai.  2023.  The Little Architect with Its Marvellous Creation: A Study on the Nest Architecture of Tropical Hornet, Vespa affinis.  Engineering Proceedings 56(1):201; https://doi.org/10.3390/ASEC2023-15333.