Bald-faced hornet Bald-faced hornet Dolichovespula maculata is a eusocial wasp of the cosmopolitan family Vespidae. Its colloquial names include the bald-faced hornet, bald hornet, white-faced hornet, white-tailed hornet, spruce wasp, blackjacket, and bull wasp. This species is a yellowjacket wasp, not a true hornet (genus "Vespa"). Colonies contain 400 to 700 workers, the largest recorded colony size in its genus, "Dolichovespula". It builds a characteristic large hanging paper nest up to 58 centimetres (23 in) in length. Workers aggressively defend their nest by repeatedly stinging invaders. "Dolichovespula maculata" is distributed throughout the United States and southern Canada, but is most common in
USS Hornet (CV-8) the hour after launching the B-25s, "Hornet" sailed into Pearl Harbor. That the Tokyo raid was the "Hornet"s mission was kept an official secret for a year; until then President Roosevelt referred to the ship from which the bombers were launched only as "Shangri-La". Two years later, the Navy would give this name to an aircraft carrier. "Hornet" steamed from Pearl Harbor on 30 April to aid and at the Battle of the Coral Sea, but the battle ended before she reached the scene. On 4 May Task Force 16 crossed the equator, the first time ever for "Hornet". After