European Horents
by Donna Brown
Title
European Horents
Artist
Donna Brown
Medium
Photograph - Photographic
Description
The European hornet was introduced into the New York area in the 1850's. It is the only true hornet in North America. Since its introduction, the European hornet has spread throughout most of the eastern United States. In nature, European hornets are beneficial because the feed on many insect pests. European hornets can however, damage crops by feeding on fruits such as apples. The greatest concern with European hornets is when they nest near areas of human activity. Adult European hornets, are quite large and they are often confused with baldfaced hornets. Baldfaced hornets are black with white markings. European hornets have a yellow face with black eyes and yellow stripes with black spots on the end of their body. Adult female workers and males are up to 1 inch in length. European hornet queens are very robust and over an inch in length.European hornet colonies contain a queen and many female workers. European hornet colonies are generally small in size with a range of 200-400 workers. During early spring, the queens emerge from protected sites, such as logs, stumps, and under loose bark. Once the queen finds a good nesting site, she will begin construction of the nest, lay eggs and collect food to feed her young. After the first generation of wasps have completed development and emerge as adults, they assume the duties of expanding and maintaining the nest and caring for the colony. New queens and males are produced in mid to late summer. The males and queens will then leave the nest, mate, and the new queens find a suitable protected site to overwinter until the following spring. Nests are often active into late fall (August-November), but eventually, the original queen and workers die by early winter. In most cases, abandoned nests are not reused the following year.
Uploaded
September 11th, 2013
Statistics
Viewed 112 Times - Last Visitor from Cambridge, MA on 04/19/2024 at 6:11 PM
Embed
Share
Sales Sheet
Comments
There are no comments for European Horents. Click here to post the first comment.