Dear Rick,
 
Thank you for examining the specimen of the bee-eating wasp I
sent you and for confirming your hunch that it was indeed the
giant European Hornet, Vespa crabro.  I collected the specimen
at Canton, GA USA last summer, this information for any reader
who may have missed by original posting.
 
Now, I solicit another opinion from you, but no specimen to send
you for this comes from recollections some 20 years old.  Behind my
Grandmother's house at Canton, a small tool shed--about 2m x3m--was
gradually falling down...tilted to the side, paint weathered and
peeled away exposing old, bare wood that made up the walls.
 
A large number--perhaps 500+-- specimens of a colonial-nesting bee(?)
had set up "housekeeping" in the boards on the west side of the shed.
The bees were perhaps 10mm long and 1.5mm in diameter, were very dark,
(probably black or very dark green), and may have been mating at times.
I remember a large number of them flying about, but what I remember
most vividly is that if one looked closely at the holes which they
had made in the wood, you often saw a pair of compound eyes at the
top of the hole "looking back" at you.  The bees appeared to be in
individuals holes though the holes were close together...1 cm or
less (?) at times.
 
I never attempted to identify the bee (or wasp?) at that time, and I
realize that my observations are tempered by time.  Can you venture an
opinion with respect to the species?
 
I shall send cc's to the BEE-L subscribers, and I would welcome comments
from anyone.  Again, I thank you for your expertise.
 
Cordially yours, Jim
 
 
 
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|  James D. Satterfield  |  [log in to unmask] |
|  P.O. Box 2243         |                          |
|  Decatur, GA 30031 USA |  Telephone 404 378-8917  |
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