Hornets

[Pippa]

Hello,

I saw these two Hornets at Bentley Wood today on the path, they stayed together like this for a few minutes then one flew off followed by the other a short while later - does anyone know what they were up to? Fighting or mating or something else?

Thanks, Pippa

[Gibster]

Hi Pippa,

the only adult Hornets around at the moment are queens. So I guess they're not mating!

I don't know what's happening here. Surely if they were fighting one (at least) would be stung to death? Unless they were 'knocked unconscious' by stings and took their time recovering? But that's just a wild guess. Cool thing to witness though.

Gibster.

[Pippa]

Thanks Gibster,

I didn't really know much about Hornets so it's good to broaden my knowledge - they were just lying there and not really moving so I'm not sure if they were stinging each other or not but their faces were right up against one another (as you can see) so it was fasciniating to witness!

Pippa

[Philzoid]

Fantastic find. Can't think of what they are up to but I have encountered single queen hornets (much larger than workers) on the ground on two spearate occasions in May. One was on a tarmac road and flew off on approach. The other was on a grass tussock in the same curled position as your photo depicts. It also flew off after a few minutes. There seemed no obvious reason why they would be on the ground.
Whatever attreacted them to the ground might have co-incidently attracted your two together i.e they were scavenging / checking out a food source before they came across each other. After 'locking horns' they might have sized it up that it wasn't worth a fight to the death....?

[Pippa]

Thanks Philzoid, there are always quite a few hornets around at Bentley Wood (on the Hampshire / Wiltshire border) where I saw these and I saw quite a few more that afternoon but I have never seen them do this, it was very intriguing!