Hornet with a History

The above is remarkable. Something I discovered in digging deep into the guts of the internet before daylight this morning. But now I have to do a very un-internet thing, which is to tell you my reader, and I know its singular except for Russian bots, that I will now share the facts, but only as I recall them.

Which is to say- they are prone to error. You are depending on just my poor ass memory, trying to recall what I read 12 hours ago. This, I have noticed, is rapidly declining. Which does not, in anyway, make me happy.

What I recall here is that these are plates drawn in 1872 by a British entomologist named.. umm, Smith?...who was gathering together in one massive volume and report to his colleagues at the Royal Entomological Society in London, all the so called "undescribed" insects of China. And there are a lot them. It's a big book.

You can find a copy, and enjoy it, here. 

Was there a better time for bug people?

In the center- that bright colored, Pokemon with wings creature,  is the first (Western) drawing of the Asian Giant Hornet. The Giant Sparrow Bee, and Smith is the one, in this book, who names it Vespa mandarinia. And why?  Because it was found in You Choo, or something similar, a  badly translated Chinese village which I cannot find on a map, and I am guessing was named in honor of the current Chinese government leaders-  the biggest hornets in the area. 

What did the Chinese call it? No record is mentioned. Out of curiosity- what do other east Asian and SE Asian countries call it? I don't know. I searched Korea for "giant hornet" in Korean and all I got was a thousand images of an aircraft carrier. They apparently adore the U.S.N. Hornet, or did. Their focus is obviously on other things right now. 

The Japanese, on the other hand,  have lots of names in their various scripts.

And so- at that date- the mystery for the West begins. A gigantic hornet that loves rainy, forested , mountain areas where the temperature was low, but never hot- and wiping out Western honeybees.

And yet in 150 years of immigration and trade with China, Japan, and Korea- it never landed here as a stowaway, was never smuggled here for food, until now? How is that even possible?

I don't know, except the world is hot and creatures are moving, and insects, and things smaller, like viruses, are good at it. And when they get where they are going, it's generally pretty hospitable.

I just built 14 traps for these hornets, for use in Whatcom county, where they are expected to have made a foothold. The traps I made are for placement on a hive (for more info go here), unlike the state's  1700 "syrup" hives, which catch those looking for sweets. Mine are for those looking for meat- bee meat- which they do starting about now. Or so we think.

It is possible this is all for naught. that no hornet has made a foothold. One was caught a few weeks back, but turned out to be a leftover from last summer's hive. There is no evidence of an established hive at this point- but a high suspicion of one.