Asian Hornet

Description:

Difficult to estimate to size of it, but to me it looked really huge - much bigger than a basketball... Roundish sphere, colour of dead leaves, appearing narrowly attached to branches above. The nest is high in trees, somewhere near the top of that tree, above 12m in height. Through that opening on the side (looks like a physical damage to the nest, occurring maybe during the intervention to remove it?), we can see combs posed horizontally, in layers. Very close to that opening, to the right, there seem to be another one, smaller - probably the original entry point: round and on the side. All of these - the size of the nest, its location and internal structure point to Asian Hornet, and not to any of usual European members of Hymenoptera. At this moment of the year, this nest is empty: this hornet's life cycle is annual, which means that the whole colony dies as soon as the first frosts arrive. Only the future fertilised queens will survive and spend the winter under cover. It is only when the temperatures are adequate in spring that the queen will emerge from the cavity chosen as a refuge. She will then build a nest and lay her eggs, which will become her workers. They are said to be very prolific - I read somewhere that one nest of this year would produce four to five active colonies next spring.

Habitat:

Urban or peri-urban - here, we were in Lyon suburbs, quite green with lot of trees (for now) but still very urban center. These were seen from balcony 100m-120m away and across a private park, high in trees surrounding a private clinic.

Notes:

1.) Asian Hornet is an alien and invasive species in Europe. The story of Asian Hornet in Europe starts in 2004, when it was introduced accidentally, but managed to prosper and invade new territories - today, it is present in all French departments, and it was equally observed in Spain and Portugal. Apparently, it is not more agressive, nor more venomous than the European hornet; but it poses a serious threat to the beekeeping industry (capable of annihilating entire colonies) and is detrimental to biodiversity, as bees contribute to the reproduction of 80% of flowering plant species. In addition to bees, it attacks a wide range of insects, including wasps, flies, butterflies and spiders. It also causes significant damage in orchards by devouring fruit. 2.) The fight against it is complex, and experts agree there is no way to exterminate it anymore - it reproduces efficiently and has no real predators, capable of attacking the entire colony, in Europe - with the exception of Honey Buzzard, who himself is getting scarcer and scarcer. 3.) While preparing this spotting, I just read an interesting article about another invasive hornet that was observed, for the first time last year in south of France - Oriental Hornet or Vespa orientalis; causing some more worries in the country. 4.) I must admit that this one gave me a start, and posed a riddle when I first saw it... As mentioned above, we saw it from a balcony, some 100m to 120m away, and observed it through binoculars and camera zoom. It did not make much sense - at first, I thought it was a bird nest but, being round as it is, it looked too huge for birds. Finally, back home and seeing it on bigger screen, I was able to see that it was something else...