Bald-faced hornet coloring differentiates it from its mostly black and yellow genus mates. Baldfaced hornets are distinguished from other yellowjackets by their white and black coloring. It has a white or "baldfaced" head, which is the source of its colloquial name. These wasps also have three white stripes at the end of their bodies. They are notably larger than other species of "Dolichovespula", as adults average about in length. Queen and worker wasps have similar morphologies. However, workers are covered by small hairs while the queen remains hairless. Queens are always larger than workers in their colonies, though size distributions can vary
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