Hornet Uterus - Queen of the Year

Hornets are close relatives of wasps, they have a waist, a striped abdomen, large eyes, and powerful jaws. Insects are distinguished from their closest relatives by their large size and brown spots in the cephalothorax. Hornets, like wasps, are public insects. Their family is being built around the queen. The hornet uterus is the founder of the colony, its main function is to give offspring.

Appearance of the Queen of Hornets

What does a hornet uterus look like? The queen of large wasps almost does not differ in structure and color from other representatives of her family. Her body is divided into segments and painted with yellow, brown and black stripes. Among the differences in the structure of male and female: in males, one segment is more in the antennae of the abdomen. The eyes of the insect are reddish, the body is covered with hairs. Powerful jaws are designed to break prey - caterpillars, bees, butterflies. Large individuals prey on birds and frogs.

Attention. Only the uterus and working females can sting; males have no sting. At one stroke, the insect paralyzes or kills the victim.

The uterus can be found in the garden or in the field in late spring - early summer. During this period, she independently takes care of the first offspring growing up in the nest. When the queen flies alone, it is difficult to assess its size, but in comparison with working individuals, the difference is immediately noticeable. The hornet uterus is almost 2 times larger than the rest of the family. Its size is up to 35 mm, while that of an ordinary hornet is 20 mm.

Information. The uterus secretes certain pheromones that allow you to control males. They never mate with other females.

Varieties of Hornets

There are 23 species of hornets; these individuals vary in size and color. The most common are:

• European Hornet - lives in the European part of Russia, in Siberia, North America, and Ukraine. This species is distributed everywhere, south of the 63rd parallel. The size of the female reaches 25-35 mm.
• Black hornet is a less common type of insect. They differ in the black color of the abdomen and brown wings. They live in Transbaikalia and Primorye. The parameters of the female are 25-32 mm.
  
• Asian - the largest representative of the family lives in China, Korea, Thailand, Japan and the Primorsky Territory of the Russian Federation. The size of individuals is 50-60 mm. For its impressive size, the insect in Japan is called the "bee-sparrow", and in China, the "tiger-bee"

Attention. The Asian giant hornet produces toxic poison with a paralyzing effect. When administered to a person, it can cause anaphylactic shock. Despite the fact that the insect attacks only in case of threat, in Japan, 40 people die from their bites per year.

The insidious "black queen"

Among the many species of insects, a black hornet stands out in a special way of life. A young womb instead of building her own nest by deception captures the favorite house of other hornets. She kills the hornet queen and disguises herself with the help of pheromones.Such a capture does not always succeed, because while the real queen is alive, working individuals fiercely protect her, killing someone else’s uterus. With a favorable outcome, the insects do not notice the substitution, they begin to serve the new uterus.

A female black hornet lays eggs in a conquered nest. Of these, carnivorous larvae appear, which are secured by working individuals. The grown black hornets fly out of another's nest and mate. The surviving fertilized females are looking for a place to winter, and in May they will launch attacks on other people's nests. The number of queens who died before they can reach the queen is more than compensated by the number of individuals that grew from eggs during successful captures. For the unusual behavior of black hornets, they are called nesting parasites.

Information. The black queen can build a nest on her own. If in the range of its existence there are no small species of hornets with which it can cope, then the option of parasitism disappears. Insects build their own nest, live and provide the uterus together.

Queen Hornet Life Cycle

The hornet uterus lives 1 year, but during this time it manages to give rise to hundreds of lives. How is the life of the founder of the hornet colony?

Start

Young females capable of procreation appear in the nest in August-September. For their birth, the uterus lays fertilized eggs. In parallel with females, males born from unfertilized eggs grow up. At this stage, the nest reaches its maximum size, and the number of working hornets is in the hundreds. Mature males and females fly out of the nest to mate. After fertilization, the hornet dies, and the female saves sperm in a special department. Seed will not have to be used soon, because winter is ahead and it is necessary to seek refuge from the cold.

Uterus wintering

In the last warm days of autumn, the hornet uterus actively eats, stocking reserves for a long winter. In November, almost all working individuals die and life in the nest freezes. It will not be used a second time, young queens will find a convenient place and build a new home for the family. To survive the cold months, the female hornet hides in the hollows, under the bark of trees, in the crevices of the sheds. Not all insects will survive until spring and give rise to a new colony of giant wasps.

For the economical consumption of accumulated nutrients, the body of the insect goes into a state of diapause. It is characterized by inhibition of metabolism. A decrease in temperature and daylight becomes a signal for the onset of diapause. This condition increases the female body's resistance to external influences. She gets the opportunity to survive the winter frosts. Slowing down life does not save future queens from other threats. Insects hiding under the bark of trees become food for birds and mammals.

Creating a new family

In the spring, with the onset of warm days, a young female hornet wakes up after hibernation. She begins to actively seek food in order to restore strength. During this period, the basis of her diet are other insects. With the advent of fruits, the diet becomes more diverse. If the apiary is nearby, then even one uterus is a threat to the hive.

Performing reconnaissance flights, the future queen is looking for a place to justify a new nest. It can be a hollow tree, a hole in the field, a place under the roof of an apartment building, a birdhouse. She collects the soft bark from the branches, chews it and makes the first hexagonal honeycombs for eggs. Working alone, the female is able to make a nest the size of half a soccer ball. Typically, the number of cells is 40-50 pieces. The uterus purposefully lays eggs, determining the sex of future hornets. The control mechanism consists in fertilization or its absence. From fertilized eggs, females are born, ready in the future to become a uterus. Of the unfertilized - working hornets are born.

Interesting. Under certain conditions, working females can change the reproductive system.As a result of the death of the queen, the ovaries are activated in ordinary females. Under normal conditions, these organs do not function; they are suppressed by uterine pheromones. All eggs are unfertilized, because there was no mating process. Of these, only males appear. The absence of young workers leads to the decline of the hornet colony.

Hornet's nest

Hardworking insects are great architects. Their honeycombs have the shape of hexagons, and the nests themselves reach gigantic sizes - up to 70 cm in length. The construction of a house for the hornet family begins with a young womb. As a material, it uses bark of ash, birch and rotten wood. By mixing them with saliva, the insect receives material similar in properties to cardboard.

On the outside, the nest has a rounded shape, cells with eggs and larvae are hidden inside. The construction is carried out in tiers, their number reaches 6-7 pieces. The shell protects the younger generation and the uterus from the cold and drafts. The expansion of the home is from top to bottom, by attaching the next tier. For insects to enter the house, one entrance is left. Working hornets develop in the upper tiers, and future uterus in the lower tiers. Larger uterine cells are created for them.

Development from larva to hornet

From the masonry in the combs after 5-7 days, larvae appear, their size is 1-2 mm. At first they are kept in the comb due to a sticky secret, but after a while they increase in size, occupying all the free space. Hornets at this phase of life eat exclusively protein foods, so their mother tirelessly preys on insects and feeds future helpers. She herself eats sweet, soft fruits with pleasure - pears, plums, peaches.

After a few days, the larvae braid themselves with a silk cocoon, turning into pupae. A cover for honeycombs is made of the same silk thread. This stage will last 12-14 days, and then young hornets will appear. They gnaw their way to freedom in a few minutes. The first two days the working female hornet spends in the cell. But, without even starting to build or hunt for food, it benefits the family. An individual warms neighboring cells with pupae.

By July, there are about 10 working individuals, so the queen has to fly very rarely. Assistants are growing more and more, and the uterus stops bringing food to the larvae, these functions completely transfer to the remaining hornets.

In the nest, the founder of the colony is completely safe and can give birth to procreation. Until her death, she will lay eggs. This period is the safest in the existence of the family.

Information. The uterus controls the colony thanks to the signals given by odors - pheromones. Different smells make the hornets attack the enemies, get food, feed the larvae.

Obligations to expand the nest and obtain food are transferred to working individuals. The uterus deals exclusively with laying eggs. By September, she loses the ability to procreate. The old queen leaves her family and dies from the cold. Often the males, who served her faithfully, drive the uterus away. The exhausted insect noticeably differs from young females - its wings are frayed, and the body has lost hair. Young fertilized females seek shelter for wintering. In May next year, surviving individuals will become the founders of new nests.

Interesting fact. Sometimes the uterus chooses a birdhouse to build a nest. This is not a very good option, because the design space is limited. When there is no free space left, the family has to build a honeycomb outside the birdhouse or look for a new place for the house. After a good choice, the uterus and several working individuals move to a new nest. Some hornets remain to care for the larvae. The grown insects fly to a new place of residence, the old nest in the birdhouse is empty.

Hornet and human interaction

The type of insects is quite threatening, females up to 35 mm in size can scare any person.But, despite the formidable appearance and the presence of a sting, hornets try to avoid contact with people. Insects are not attracted to jam on the table or other sweets, so they will not have to be driven away like annoying wasps. Working individuals and young uterus are dangerous only near the nest. They selflessly defend their colony, at any sign of a threat, they ruthlessly sting everyone who is within a radius of 2-3 meters.

A hornet family living in a remote corner of the garden can be beneficial. Predatory insects can destroy a large number of tree pests - caterpillars, butterflies, flies, beetles and spiders. The total weight of the caught food reaches 500 g.

Attention. Due to frequent cases of destruction of hornets nests in some places, insects were on the verge of destruction. In Germany, for the ruin of the colony faces a fine of 50,000 €.

The Hornet Queen is the center and foundation of the family. All the functions of procreation are assigned to her. Premature loss of the uterus is irreplaceable, the colony is doomed to slow extinction.