Asian giant hornet
Amazing fact
Asian giant hornet larvae make sounds by scraping their jaws against the walls of their cells.
University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web
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An illustration based on the real animal.
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Asian giant hornet larvae make sounds by scraping their jaws against the walls of their cells.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Asian giant hornet
- Scientific name
- Vespa mandarinia
- Japanese name
- オオスズメバチ
- Group
- Insects
- Class
- Insecta
- Order
- Hymenoptera
- Family
- Vespidae
- Genus
- Vespa
A very large hornet that lives in low mountains and forests.
Its head is orange, and its abdomen has straight, alternating black and yellow bands.
It builds large nests underground, for example in old mouse burrows. It gathers at tree sap and sometimes attacks other insects there.
How the Asian giant hornet lives
Adults can be seen from spring through autumn. Workers catch beetles, mantises and other insects. They chew captured bees and wasps into balls and feed them to larvae in the nest.
まちだエコライフ推進公社University of Michigan Animal Diversity WebBasic data
- Size
- Body length: males 27–39 mm, 27–37 mm, females 37–44 mmまちだエコライフ推進公社
- Diet
- Tree sap and fruitUniversity of Michigan Animal Diversity Web
- Range
- Eastern and southeastern Asia north of the tropicsUniversity of Michigan Animal Diversity Web
Where the Asian giant hornet has been recorded
Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF
Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.
Names around the world
- 日本語
- オオスズメバチ
- 简体中文
- 金环胡峰
- 繁體中文
- 中華大虎頭蜂
- 한국어
- 장수말벌
- Español
- Avispón gigante asiático
- Deutsch
- Asiatische Riesenhornisse
- Português (Brasil)
- Vespa-gigante-asiática
- Italiano
- Calabrone gigante asiatico
- العربية
- سرمان عملاق آسيوي
- Bahasa Indonesia
- Tawon raksasa asia
- Tiếng Việt
- Ong bắp cày khổng lồ châu Á
- Русский
- Азиатский огромный шершень
Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.
Sources and how we check
- 守山市 — 美崎公園とその周辺の自然（ハチのなかま）Checked: 2026-11-03
- University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web — Vespa mandariniaChecked: 2026-11-03
- まちだエコライフ推進公社 — まちだのいきものたち オオスズメバチChecked: 2026-11-03
We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.
The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.
The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.
This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.
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