Vespa tropica
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
Vespa tropica, the greater banded hornet, is a tropical species of hornet found in Southern Asia, New Guinea and west Africa, and which has recently been discovered to be an invasive species on the Pacific island of Guam. It is a predator of paper wasps and possesses a potent sting, which can cause extreme pain and swelling.
The workers of Vespa tropica are about 24–26 millimetres (15⁄16–1 in) in length, while queens grow to 30 millimetres (1+1⁄4 in). The head is dark brown/red; the abdomen is black with a distinct yellow stripe which covers most of the second abdominal segment. However, there is some variation across its range and in Singapore and southeastern Asia, specimens are often completely black and larger in size, while in other regions such as Hong Kong, the head and flanks of the thorax are normally reddish. A third colour form is found in the Andamans and Nicobars, which has a reddish brown head and thorax and all the dorsal plates on each segment of the gastrum are orange except the first.
Vespa tropica is distributed throughout southern Asia from Afghanistan to the Philippines, south to New Guinea, New Britain and the Torres Strait... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Khao Sok National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand | |
| 2 | Sepilok | 🇲🇾 Malaysia |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tiruchirappalli | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 2 | Bengaluru | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 3 | Coimbatore | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 4 | Denpasar | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 5 | Mysuru | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 6 | Thrissur | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 7 | Dehradun | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 8 | Colombo [Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte] | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 9 | Yogyakarta | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 10 | Pune | 🇮🇳 India |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Greater Banded Hornet sighting in Sepilok on a given day, based on 5 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 79th most-seen of the 87 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 40%, if each day is a fresh chance.
June and November
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Greater Banded Hornet in Sepilok on a given day, against under 5% in May, July–September and December–March, the lowest months.
Between 4 and 7 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Greater Banded Hornet sightings with a recorded time, and about 7 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is most active around dawn and dusk.
Among the best
Of the 2 parks where we can rate Greater Banded Hornet sightings, Sepilok ranks 2nd at about 10%, level with the leaders once rounded. The best odds are in Khao Sok National Park (Thailand, about 10%).
Same order: Hymenoptera
The closest relatives of the Greater Banded Hornet that you can see in Sepilok (order Hymenoptera, Ants, Bees, Wasps, and Sawflies) are Asian Weaver Ant (about 30%), Broad-Handed Carpenter Bee (about 10%) and Homotrigona binghami (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Greater Banded Hornet is recorded against all the insects logged in Sepilok (5 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.
