Four massive wasps
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Uncooperative crusty. Unofficial Isle of Wight cultural ambassador. Conservation, countryside and the environment, with extra stuff about spiders.
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We heard you wanted to see a picture of four massive wasps. So here they are.
These appear to be very dark specimens of Vespa mandarinia, the Asian giant hornet of which more here. I’m not even sure these ones are alive – it would be hard to get them to sit like that naturally, and they all seem to have extended stings which is unusual in life, although quite often happens to insects after death.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s as a kid in East Texas (Rusk, Texas to be exact.) I saw wasps very similar to these pictured but LARGER! Flying only in arrow-straight lines generally, very quickly (avg. at least 35 to 40mph+) toward some objective like they had somewhere to be. Rarely would they slow down enough to get a good look but when they did I caught sight of one on on a particular and day, once or twice, and I was flabbergasted! A bit scared but curious. Even when flying fast I was, seeing these yet unidentified new “Texas sized beasts”. They weren’t Carpenter Bees, Cicada Killers, Grave Wasps, or any Murder Hornet! They were MUCH larger! Their body size and mass as that of a Finch! The had an Abdomen which was enormous, shiney solid black and the size of a VERY large man’s thumb or if any locals can attest to eating one or several of “Doc’s Hotlink” Sausages and similar size of an 10 or 8 gauge shell! (I can assure you however, I’d never seen one of Doc’s sprout wings and fly!). They/it was well over 3 inches in length, easily FOUR. Near solid black bodies with with rust reds and body proportionate rust colored clear wings. I saw them over two summers several times a summer in a lightly populated neighborhood with houses that were not all that far apart (a typical 1930s to 1950s group of houses with 1 to 2 acre yards quite close together)
At this age I was about 9 to 11 years when regularly seeing them. An avid bird hunter, outdoorsman, who spent the first 17 years of my life mostly alone with a small hunting dog or with friend’s and family both grown and child age besties also mostly in nature in rural areas all over the Americas and living from Canada to Mexico. SO, I was an excellent judge of the specifics of the local Flora/Fauna and what size it grew to and something’s proportion in general, others who saw it and my Father didn’t have a clue what in the blazes it was. I mean–what in the hell WAS this thing?! That hasn’t time to slow down and say, “hello” hardly, if ever? Could be clocked once I know, at least as flying over 50 mph. Was definitely NOT a murder hornet as it was much larger, not aggressive and hell bent on its destination, generally? This thing was ever bit a hornet in body construction and capable it seemed in carting off a small dog.
This picture here is of animalia well at the 3″ mark. Well later than reported murder hornets for my time of viewing, easily, plus the colors of what I/we saw don’t match any known Hornets or Wasps of such size. There is no way these are typical MURDER hornet in either case. What I saw wasn’t and I’ve seen all the other aforementioned and known “bugs” it could be up close and personal in my life. So what the hell am I possibly describing in what I saw 30 years ago, as a young man very much a matured child who possessed man sized guns, hunted with men and kept their company, soberly and sincerely knowing most of what was “out there” in nature to see and know, at least today…?