Vindicate me?

[stranded]

I have an acquaintance on facebook who has been trying to identify this bug. He lives in PA and says it's about two inches long (it really looks more between like an inch and an inch and a half). Though not 100%, I told him what I thought it was and he scoffed at me... (though he believed someone else who said it was an asian giant hornet -_-;)

Comments

[rirakkumiru]

Kinda like a leaf cutter bee.

[stranded]

Hmm, not what I came up with...

hornet ID

[vajsha]

She is a European Hornet Vespa crabro. Picture #3 is the identifier - looking at the pattern on the abdomen.

Re: hornet ID

[stranded]

THANK YOU!! That is exactly what I thought. I don't know why this guy not believing me has gotten so under my skin but it's been making me nuts. He was so quick to agree with someone who called it a giant asian hornet, and turns around to tell me that I am WAY off (-_____-) ... even now that he's agreeing with someone about it being a yellow jacket is annoying me. I am no expert at all, but even in bad photos the head (shape and coloring) and thorax (coloring) and the size seem wrong for that.

Thank you thank you.

[vajsha]

well, I would be annoyed too if someone just dissed me because he's being a … jerk. You can tell him that a PhD entomologist identified her for you and that his pictures really suck. ;) To identify her, you need abdominal markings and/or wing venation. The only thing you can really tell from most of the pictures is that she's a Vespid (folded wings). Picture three clearly shows the abdominal markings of a European hornet. Kudos!

[stranded]

This means so much to me! I'm not going to bother correcting him at this point. I told him twice before and directed him to photos that look exactly like his catch, but he seems to just want it to be something with a fear-inspiring name and isn't bothering with anything else. (He initially was asking if it was an africanized killer bee, so I really believe in his head big = "one of the few scary sounding names I have heard of")

From a layman's position (a quick google image search and wikipedia) it seemed that yellow jackets should be smaller and have yellow marking on their thorax and several other things that don't match up. And if he was willing to believe it's an Asian giant hornet... well... I'm wasting my time with him! (^-^;)

I think in his head "European hornet" sounds boring and too much like "European honeybee". If only the European hornet had a name like "gigantic killer death wasp" then he probably would have listened to me.

Anyway. I feel super vindicated! And that will have to be enough. Thank you!!