Vespa affinis
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~60%
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 |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Lesser Banded Hornet sighting in Minneriya National Park on a given day, based on 6 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 28th most-seen of the 44 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 60%, if each day is a fresh chance.
October
In that month about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Lesser Banded Hornet in Minneriya National Park on a given day, against under 5% in January–February, May–June, August and November, the lowest months. That is one of Minneriya National Park's wettest months, with about 230 mm of rain against 20 mm in June.
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.
2nd of 2
Of the 2 parks where we can rate Lesser Banded Hornet sightings, Minneriya National Park ranks 2nd at about 10%. The best odds are in Yala National Park (Sri Lanka, about 20%).
Same order: Hymenoptera
The closest relatives of the Lesser Banded Hornet that you can see in Minneriya National Park (order Hymenoptera, Ants, Bees, Wasps, and Sawflies) are Slender-Scaped Carpenter Bee (about 30%), Giant Honey Bee (about 30%) and Asian Weaver Ant (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Lesser Banded Hornet is recorded against all the insects logged in Minneriya National Park (6 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), 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.
