Photo Adventures with Curiosity and Learning

We have a surprise here on the GMS campus - a yellow-banded something. Yesterday this is what I saw - but with my point and shoot. A bit of nest building going on under the tiled roof. The something was identified by Mike Chee as the Greater banded hornet (aka Vespa tropica). The Lesser banded hornet is similar except the yellow region extends all the way to the head.

This morning I brought my good camera for some photos

Here is a better view of the nest

another view

another view

and then the pest guys appeared. These little yellow banded guys are very intelligent. They simply flew away at the first sight of the pest guys. Now they are simply buzzing around - a moving target for this photographer

Another view

and here, with the flash

A little Google work revealed a few excellent photos of the banded hornet - here is the greater banded hornet from http://www.hornissenschutz.de/tropica.htm:

The lesser banded hornet (from http://www.hornissenschutz.de/weitere/1_vespa_affinis.jpg)

and the lesser banded hornet's nest. Now the challenge is to find the description of how the paper is synthesized within these hornets. (Also from http://www.hornissenschutz.de/weitere/2_vespa_affinis_nest.jpg)

Meanwhile, around the back, we have a bee tree. Yesterday a small part of the honey comb fell to the ground. I picked it up, smelled like honey, felt like wax and tasted like honey + wax

During lunch, some guys appeared and removed our honey pot. However, in the afternoon, now one can study the structure of the honey comb and observe the hexagonal patterns.

C. Frank Starmer

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