Vespa affinis
In 3 days ~50% in a week ~80%
Vespa affinis, the lesser banded hornet, is a common hornet in tropical and subtropical Asia. The lesser banded hornet is a small to medium-sized hornet, with queens reaching up to 30 mm, males 26 mm and workers averaging 22 to 25 mm.
The head is brownish red or black, pubescent, with some red markings on frons and vertex, black temple; compound eyes and ocelli black; dark brown antennae and usually pale brown underneath; black clypeus, coarsely punctate, posterior side of clypeus with broadly rounded lobes; mandibles and tooth black. Thorax black with many punctures and some erected hairs, propodeum black. Legs dark brown. Wings dark fuscous brown, tegulae dark brown. Gaster with some fine punctures, dark brown segments except first and second segments yellowish orange. In some specimens, the yellowish orange on the first tergite may be reduced to two transverse spots and a narrow apical band.
There are many color variants across the range of the species, originally considered subspecies but no longer recognized; while there is a history of recognizing subspecies within many of the Vespa hornets, the most recent taxonomic revision of the genus treats all subspecific... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yala National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 2 | Minneriya National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yogyakarta | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 2 | Jamshedpur | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 3 | Phnom Penh | 🇰🇭 Cambodia | |
| 4 | Xiuying District | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 5 | Taichung | 🇹🇼 Taiwan | |
| 6 | Surakarta | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 7 | Ho Chi Minh City | 🇻🇳 Vietnam | |
| 8 | Jakarta | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 9 | Tuen Mun | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 10 | Dhaka | 🇧🇩 Bangladesh |
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Lesser Banded Hornet sighting in Taichung on a given day, based on 45 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 20th most-seen of the 197 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 50%, and over a week to about 80%, if each day is a fresh chance.
June and October–November
In those months about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Lesser Banded Hornet in Taichung on a given day, against under 5% in February and March, the lowest months.
Between 6 and 9 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Lesser Banded 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.
5th of 24
Of the 24 cities where we can rate Lesser Banded Hornet sightings, Taichung ranks 5th at about 20%. The best odds are in Yogyakarta (Indonesia, about 30%), Jamshedpur (India, about 30%) and Phnom Penh (Cambodia, about 20%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Lesser Banded Hornet is recorded against all the insects logged in Taichung (45 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.
