Vespa velutina
In 3 days ~40% in a week ~70%
The Asian hornet (Vespa velutina), also known as the yellow-legged hornet or Asian predatory wasp, is a species of hornet indigenous to Southeast Asia. It is of concern as an invasive species in some other countries, including most of Europe.
Vespa velutina is significantly smaller than the European hornet. Typically, queens are 30 mm (1.2 in) long, and males about 24 mm (0.94 in). Workers are about 20 mm (0.79 in) long. The species has distinctive yellow tarsi (legs). The thorax is a velvety brown or black with a brown abdomen. Each abdominal segment has a narrow posterior yellow border, except for the fourth segment, which is orange. The head is black and the face yellow. Regional forms vary sufficiently in colour to cause difficulties in classification, and several subspecies have been variously identified and ultimately rejected; while there is a history of recognising subspecies within many of the Vespa species, including V. velutina, the most recent taxonomic revision of the genus treats all subspecific names in the genus Vespa as synonyms, effectively relegating them to no more than informal names for regional colour forms. The colour form causing concern about... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cuc Phuong National Park | 🇻🇳 Vietnam | |
| 2 | Taroko National Park | 🇹🇼 Taiwan | |
| 3 | Cévennes National Park | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 4 | Pyrénées National Park | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 5 | Picos de Europa National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 6 | Mercantour National Park | 🇫🇷 France |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Yellow-Legged Hornet sighting in Shanghai on a given day, based on 70 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 22nd most-seen of the 215 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 40%, and over a week to about 70%, if each day is a fresh chance.
August and September
In those months about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Yellow-Legged Hornet in Shanghai on a given day, against under 5% in May–June and December–January, the lowest months. Those are among Shanghai's wettest months, with about 160 mm of rain a month against 55 mm in December.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Yellow-Legged Hornet sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
31st of 41
Of the 41 cities where we can rate Yellow-Legged Hornet sightings, Shanghai ranks 31st at about 10%. The best odds are in Brussels (Belgium, about 40%), Kunming (China, about 40%) and Hefei (China, about 40%).
Same order: Hymenoptera
The closest relatives of the Yellow-Legged Hornet that you can see in Shanghai (order Hymenoptera, Ants, Bees, Wasps, and Sawflies) are Asian Honey Bee (about 30%), Bronze-Winged Bamboo-Carpenter (about 10%) and Japanese Queenless Ant (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Yellow-Legged Hornet is recorded against all the insects logged in Shanghai (70 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
