page_title: Oriental hornet
section_title: Taxonomy and phylogeny
hierarchical_section_title: Oriental hornet / Taxonomy and phylogeny
caption_attribution_description: Vespa orientalis drinking water in Samos/Greece
context_page_description: The Oriental hornet is a social insect of the family Vespidae. It can be found in Southwest Asia, Northeast Africa, the island of Madagascar, the Middle East, Central Asia, and parts of Southern Europe. Oriental hornets have also been found in a few isolated locations such as Mexico and Chile due to human introduction. The Oriental hornet lives in seasonal colonies consisting of caste system dominated by a queen. The hornet builds its nests underground and communicates using sound vibrations. The hornet has a yellow stripe on its cuticle, which can absorb sunlight to generate a small electrical potential, and this might help supply energy for digging. The adult hornet eats nectar and fruits and scavenges for insects and animal proteins to feed to its young. Because they are scavengers, the hornets may also serve as a transmitter of disease following consumption of infected plants. The hornets are a primary pest to honey bees, attacking bee colonies to obtain honey and animal proteins. The sting of an Oriental hornet can be quite painful to humans and some humans are allergic to stings.
context_section_description: The Oriental hornet (V. orientalis) belongs to the family Vespidae, which consists of wasps, hornets, and yellowjackets. It is a member of the genus Vespa, which constitutes true hornets. V.  orientalis has unique adaptations to arid climates, which disguises its phylogenic relationship to other species of the genus Vespa, making it difficult to map based on morphological data alone. Thus, the use of molecular data was crucial to correctly mapping its phylogenetic relationships. Based on molecular phylogenetics V. orientalis is most closely related to Vespa affinis and Vespa mocsaryana. While a history exists of recognizing subspecies within many of the hornets, including V. orientalis, the most recent taxonomic revision of the genus treats all subspecific names in the genus Vespa as synonyms, effectively relegating them to no more than informal names for regional color forms.
caption: Close-up of V. orientalis
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