What does the largest wasp in the world look like and what is the danger?

The largest wasp in the world is striking in its size and danger. According to official statistics, about 50 people die every year in Japan from its bites. Residents of China are suffering, the figures for mortality are similar. Shark attacks are less likely to result in death than meeting with this representative of the fauna. Therefore, he won the title of not only the largest wasp in the world, but also ranks among the leaders of the most dangerous insects on the planet.

Giant Among Wasps - Asian Hornet

The largest wasp is Vespa mandarinia, it is also an Asian hornet. Do not be surprised that the title went to the hornet. This insect is a representative of the family of Real wasps. It lives in the Middle Kingdom, Japan, Korea. Numerous populations are found in the Primorsky Territory in Russia.

Appearance

The largest wasp in the world reaches 5.9 cm in length, and the wingspan is 7.5 cm. If you place such an individual on your palm, the wings will completely cover its surface. It is not for nothing that nature has rewarded this species with impressive dimensions.

Interesting! Oversized insects tolerate high temperatures more easily. Therefore, the size of the wasp is due to the anatomical adaptation to the hot climate. In addition, the insect has an advantage over relatives, and the giant can hunt for larger prey.

What does an insect look like:

• body color varies from saturated yellow tones to medium brown with characteristic black wide stripes and is determined by the subspecies;
• yellow color head;
• cephalothorax in black tones;
  
• on both sides of the head are huge, drop-shaped eyes of almost black color;
• in the center of the forehead in the form of a triangle there are 3 more additional simple eyes that allow you to distinguish between dark and light colors and help to navigate in space.

Lifestyle

Giant wasps live mainly in forests near ponds. The hornet queen is engaged in arranging a new nest, which is typical for all insects of this order. After waking up in the spring, she begins preparing a home for the future family. A female prepares building materials from chewed bark of trees, abundantly moistened with saliva. It builds cells from a sticky substance in a very interesting way: it grabs the substrate with its front jaws, firmly presses it to the chest and bites off a small piece, and glues it.

Interesting! In places where hornets live in large numbers, almost all trees remain naked without bark.

While the queen maintains the status of a “single mother”, she has to independently prepare food for the larvae. To do this, she is forced to hunt for insects and deliver food to the cells. As soon as working individuals emerge from the first eggs, the uterus relieves itself of all authority in arranging housing, preparing food and is only engaged in the reproduction of offspring.

From morning till night, working hornets get food for voracious larvae, the diet of which should be enriched with protein products.Therefore, giant wasps often raid apiaries and can completely destroy the whole family.

Interesting! Each Asian hornet is capable of killing from 100 to 300 bees.

Killer wasps absorb honey, and killed individuals are taken to a nest for feeding babies. It is worth noting that insects use their giant stings in extreme cases. They cope with a weak adversary with the help of developed jaws. It is difficult for beekeepers to resist the powerful force of wasp aggressors, so when they discover a hornet's nest, they try to destroy it right away.

Closer to fall, population growth stops. The males die after mating, and the fertilized queen is looking for a new wintering place to establish a new family next year.

Why are giant wasps dangerous to humans?

Careless and uninformed tourists, having seen the most huge wasp in the world, try to certainly photograph it. The insect perceives this as aggression and attacks a person. You should not worry about the life of a wasp - it will remove its sting in a split second and go on about its business.
But the state of the victim can be worrying, especially if there are many bites. The only good news is that the wasp is a thrifty creature and the poison spends very sparingly. During one bite, she injects about 2 mg. The composition of the poisoning mixture includes many toxic components, as well as a potent poison - mandarotoxin. The bite of a huge wasp is painful and comparable to piercing the skin with a hot nail.

The following symptoms may appear:

• the appearance of redness, extensive swelling;
• changes in blood pressure;
• heart palpitations;
• headaches;
• cramp, severe pain in the affected area.

With numerous bites, if the victim is not provided with competent qualified assistance, a fatal outcome is possible. Since even the body of a healthy person, not prone to allergies, is not able to independently cope with an abundance of poison.

First aid to the Asian hornet victim before the doctor arrives is to remove the sting, if it accidentally remains, disinfect the affected area and apply a cold compress to relieve pain, burning and reduce swelling.

Skolia - the most beautiful oversized wasp

The huge wasp of scoliosis is a striking specimen among the giants, the titled giant of Europe. The vast family has hundreds of species, but the greatest interest is caused by the giant scoli. The thermophilic insect lives in southern countries, southern Europe, the Caucasus and the Crimea. With climate warming, the distribution borders of a huge wasp are spreading. In cold regions scoliases are not found, because in cold land the larvae have no chance of survival. The insect is listed in the Red Book.

Characteristics

A very large wasp grows to 5.5 cm. On average, the length of the females varies in the range of 4-5 cm. The males are slightly smaller and their size does not exceed 25-32 mm. Nature spared no colors, painting the side. The main body background is black. It has a contrasting dorsal shield of yellow color and the same color spots on the abdomen. The body is densely covered with hair, they are black on the chest, the last segments of the abdomen are surrounded by yellow, brown villi. The wings are bluish, purple hues.

To many people, large wasps seem intimidating and extremely dangerous. However, this does not apply to chipping. Of course, furry overall insects at first glance have some similarities with monsters. But panic at their sight is not worth it. Skolii are peace-loving insects and although they have a supply of poison, they store it for other purposes.

The composition of scoliosis poison is less toxic than that of Asian hornets and much weaker than that of ordinary small wasps.

Why chines are so attached to rhinoceros beetles

Adult wasps appear in late May and their active years begin. The peak of activity occurs in the daytime.They spend the evening and night hours buried in the upper layers of the soil or under the plant litter.

A short oral proboscis forces huge wasps to selectively select the food base. They can extract nutrients only from complexaceous, umbrella plants, which are characterized by a shallow rim.

The reinforced females begin mating. The fertilized female leaves in the soil, where it digs holes. It is no coincidence that the female leads an underground lifestyle. After all, only here she can find a suitable host for her parasite larva.

Unlike other wasps that carry insects to feed the younger generation, the scoliata chose the simpler way - it lays eggs in the larvae of other arthropods. And here she is faced with a serious problem - not everyone is suitable for the role of “surrogate parents”.

Cramped in underground conditions, the female cannot attack her prey several times. And before her there are two tasks: to paralyze the future owner of the larva and maintain its viability. In addition, the victim must have sufficient mass to provide all the necessary nutrients for the offspring of the cleavage. The rhino beetle larva was ideally suited for this role. All the necessary nerve endings are concentrated in one node, so it is enough for the wasp to deliver one exact blow to prepare a "substrate" for its embryo.

Since the predominantly necessary hosts live in soil layers, in a moist substrate, the wasp has to look for them in underground burrows. Having found a suitable object, the female accurately determines the location of the strike and introduces her sting. The poison paralyzes the victim, and the scoliage lays an egg of a tiny size of 1 mm in the abdomen.

The development of chyme larvae

Larval hatching occurs after 7-14 days. A newborn individual barely reaches 2 mm. Looking at her, it is difficult to imagine that in the future she will become a wasp of large sizes. The body of the larva is equipped with sharp jaws in the form of hooks, and it immediately proceeds to nibble the integument.

It is noteworthy that the owner is eaten in strict sequence. First, soft tissue, fat, muscle mass, and only at the end - the nervous system. As a result, the poor fellow owner remains alive until the very last moment, when only an empty shell remains of him.

It takes 7 to 12 days to absorb the “breadwinner” in the larva. During this time, it greatly increases in size and undergoes 3 molts.

When the owner is finished, the larva weaves a cobweb and fences itself from its remains. Within a few days, she builds a cocoon and goes into a dormant state. Development resumes in the spring, the pupation stage lasts about a month, and a young, mature chickens fly out from under the soil.

Megalara Garuda - the modern discovery of a new species of giant wasp

The species was discovered and systematized in 2012. A new wasp was discovered in Indonesia. The species is included in the family of sand wasps, but since it was very different from other representatives, biologists decided to classify it as a separate species. So in the taxonomy a new wasp of Megalar Garud appeared, named after the chimera - a symbol of Indonesia.

Megalara Garuda is recognized as the largest wasp in the world. The length of the male is 30-35 mm, the wingspan is about 5 cm. The impressive individual is distinguished by a black color without characteristic yellow attributes and powerful jaws, which strongly distinguish the wasp among related species.

Due to its frightening and even terrifying appearance, the insect began to be called the "Komodo lizard."