Vespa bicolor Fabricius

Figs. 2f, 8b, 12b, 12d, 12e, 19, and 20

Vespa bicolor Fabricius, 1787: 288 . Syntypes, sex not stated; China (COPENHAGEN).

Vespa lutea Coquebert, 1804: 94 . Type unknown; ‘Massiliae lecta, in navi ex India’ (repository unknown).

Vespa auraria var. citriventris du Buysson, 1905 (1904): 552. Lectotype female (designated by van der Vecht, 1959: 218); Sikkim: Padamchen Lingtou, ‘Padamtsin à Lingtou’ (PARIS).

Distribution. India, Bhutan, Nepal, China, Hong Kong, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam. Introduced into Taiwan.

Discussion. This species of Vespa has a very distinctively marked black and yellow thorax, with a largely yellow metasoma. It preys on honeybees, and one species of Dendrobium orchid exploits this behavior. These orchids produce chemicals that mimic alarm pheromones of Asian ( Apis cerana) and European ( Apis mellifera) honeybees to attract the hornets to pollinate their flowers (Brodman et al. 2009).