Message text written by Discussion of Bee Biology
>Greetings:I received this message and I am hoping someone can help me I.D.
this "bee"
 
They were probably at least an 1" long. The size was amazing to
us  as well as the fact that we would see them mostly at night on our back
porch  buzzing the lights like a moth. Although they were very scary they
never
 attacked us and eventually we stopped seeing them. They did not have fuzz
on their bodies. They were actually a pretty color. Kind of a rich rust
color.<
 
The bald bodies, large size and nocturnal activity suggest to me that they
were not bees at all. In Europe, my guess would be the hornet Vespa crabo.
Is this species is present in the US?
 
James  Morton
London UK