In answer to the recent inquiry about the European hornet - Vespa crabro
- there is information about it in "The Yellowjackets of America North of
Mexico", USDA Handbook 552.
 
Briefly, it was introduced into New York in the period 1840 - 1860. As of
1981 when the Handbook was written it had spread through the Northeast to
the Mississippi, and south through the Carolinas and Tennessee and very
slightly beyond. There are also scattered occurences in the deep South
and as far west as the Dakotas.
 
Here in Massachusetts in the last three or four years we have had many
more reports of these hornets than in earlier years. Some are reported
preying on honey bees, others are destroying fruit.
 
Vespa crabro has been considered primarily a forest species, having
few contacts with humans and presenting a minimal stinging hazard. Is
this picture changing?
 
Dick Bonney
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