Re: Was this a hornet?

Maybe a horntail/wood wasp (Urocerus gigas)?

http://www.bioimages.org.uk/HTML/P8/P8063.php
http://www.muenster.org/hornissenschutz/urocerus.htm

Keith

"Rodney Blackall" <rblackall@rodsrisc.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:4ed39b7df6rblackall@rodsrisc.demon.co.uk...
> Moving containers in the garden shed this morning I was startled by a loud
> buzzing. A huge, 3 cm long, wasp like creature started cruising slowly
> around brushing aside any cobweb in its way.
>
> I was not going to get near enough to annoy it! I got the impression of
> black and yellow stripes of about equal width. My insect book suggests
> that
> hornets, like wasps, have only thin black bands and are not all that much
> bigger than wasps.
>
> Was this a queen hornet or some European immigrant?
>
> --
> Rodney Blackall (retired meteorologist)(BSc, FRMetS, MRI)
> Buckingham, ENGLAND
> Using Acorn SA-RPC, OS 4.02 with ANT INS and Pluto 3.03j
>
>

	#1
Keith Edkins	Re: Was this a hornet? Maybe a horntail/wood wasp (Urocerus gigas)? http://www.bioimages.org.uk/HTML/P8/P8063.php http://www.muenster.org/hornissenschutz/urocerus.htm Keith "Rodney Blackall" <rblackall@rodsrisc.demon.co.uk> wrote in message news:4ed39b7df6rblackall@rodsrisc.demon.co.uk... > Moving containers in the garden shed this morning I was startled by a loud > buzzing. A huge, 3 cm long, wasp like creature started cruising slowly > around brushing aside any cobweb in its way. > > I was not going to get near enough to annoy it! I got the impression of > black and yellow stripes of about equal width. My insect book suggests > that > hornets, like wasps, have only thin black bands and are not all that much > bigger than wasps. > > Was this a queen hornet or some European immigrant? > > -- > Rodney Blackall (retired meteorologist)(BSc, FRMetS, MRI) > Buckingham, ENGLAND > Using Acorn SA-RPC, OS 4.02 with ANT INS and Pluto 3.03j > >