Lesser banded hornet
The lesser banded hornet is a dark hornet with a bright yellow or orange band around its back end. It lives in warm parts of Asia and builds big round paper nests in trees, bushes and even on houses. It is a busy hunter and a sweet tooth at the same time.
How big is it?
How long is it?
How big is Lesser banded hornet compared to YOU?
Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
Its paper nest is made of many overlapping round layers and can grow longer than 60 centimetres.
In hot countries several queens may team up with a swarm of workers to start a new nest together.
In Singapore it is all black with a brilliant orange band, while in Hong Kong it has some reddish brown too.
In Singapore it hunts the flies that buzz around dead animals.
In Hong Kong the queens sleep through the winter and wake up in April. In hot places the nest keeps going all year.
Most asked questions about Lesser banded hornet
?Where does the lesser banded hornet build its nest?
High in trees, low in bushes and sometimes on houses.
?How big is the lesser banded hornet?
Workers are about 22 to 25 millimetres long, and queens can reach 30.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Vespa affinis
- Named by
- Linnaeus, 1764
- Group
- Wasps and hornets
- Family
- Vespidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hymenoptera > Vespidae
- Lives on
- Asia
Where the facts come from
- Vespa affinis (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Maluco1968. Public domain, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
European hornet
Northern giant hornet
Bald-faced hornet
Red velvet ant
Eastern cicada killer
Asian hornet
Jataí bee
Death's head cockroach
Giant blue morpho
Giraffe stag beetle
Giant pill millipede
Chan's megastick