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Bald-faced hornet (Dolichovespula maculata) from Falls Church, VA

9/21/2014

3 Comments

 
The bald-faced hornet (Dolichovespula maculata) is more of a yellow jacket (wearing a black jacket) than a true hornet.  It makes big old paper nests in trees, and if not downright feared it is at least highly respected by any who have had run-ins with this critter.

Unlike honey bees, these animals can sting multiple times and will readily do so if you disturb the nest. 

So here is a close-up of the face.  Note that it is not bald in the face, having some whiskers, but white.  Same as the bald eagle which is not bald, but has white feathers on the head.  However, to get real esoteric with the word etymology, "bald" in the case of the eagle comes from "balde" which in earlier days meant "white." 

Picture
Bald-faced hornet close-up from Falls Church, VA. The face and mandibles are white, not lime green, which is an artifact of it sitting in a world of green leaves on a very sunny day
3 Comments
Linda
9/21/2014 11:34:37 pm

Wow, what a neat picture!

Reply
Keith
9/22/2014 02:22:38 pm

Linda,

Yes, these types of up-close-and-personal pics of insects and similar things are always worth taking and looking at. The bits of information your brain gains about the natural world by looking at this photo is probably 10x what it gains from looking at another awesome photograph of an elephant. Not that I don't like great elephant pics, I do, but there is more knowledge gained by the random viewer of pics of animals not previously seen or at least seen up close.

This area of macro photography is not my standard stuff, as I would rather have worked on getting a good shot of the entire animal (about 1-inch long). But the need was for a micro shot of the face, and no tripod in site, so yes this was handheld!

Reply
Linda
9/22/2014 11:35:40 pm

Another Wow to being handheld! Amazing!

Reply



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