Australian hornet band marking the abdomen. The insects wings are largely translucent, but tinted orange with black areas at the wing's end. Being a member of the potter wasp subfamily (Eumeninae), "A. ephippium" females build large nests in sheltered positions using mud. The females search for prey (including spiders and caterpillars) around trees and shrubs, before sealing the captured insects inside the nest's cells. The larvae then feed upon these insects, before emerging. Australian hornet The Australian hornet ("Abispa ephippium"), actually a type of potter wasp or "mason wasp", is a vespid insect native to the Australian states and territories of the
Bald-faced hornet C29 backbone. The major lipids and their distributions in workers were as follows: n-heptacosane(28%), 11-13-methylheptacosane (15%) 3,13-dimethylheptacosane (11%) and 13 and 15-methylnonacosane (10%). Nonacosene comprised 34% of cuticular lipids in the queen. The average chain length of identified cuticular lipids is 28.0 in queens and 27.5 in workers. In "D. maculata", queens mate with only one male which results in a worker relatedness of 0.75, whereas the relatedness between the queen and worker is only 0.5. Gynes in "D. maculata" have the ability to discriminate between fragments of natal comb and foreign comb. Recognition does not depend upon presence of