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An image purporting to show an Asian giant hornet is occasionally featured on lists about the most dangerous insects on the planet. The suspicious photograph is also featured in a popular meme (with a claim that this insect kills dozens of people people a year) and received a boost in popularity in May 2018, when it was shared on the Facebook page for comedian Martin Lawrence: One part of the claim is true. The Asian giant hornet is a real insect, and it does have a (potentially) deadly sting. However, the insect featured in this meme is actually a movable painted model created by Mushibuchi, a Japanese artist who creates and sells a variety of toy sculptures. Although the image may resemble a genuine insect at first glance, Mushibuchi has posted several other images which clearly show that the hornet is a model: Mushibuchi's Twitter feed is full of photographs which show the creation of these models. Although we could not find any images showing the development of this specific hornet, Mushibuchi documents other toy insects on their journeys from digital rendering to 3D printed object to a realistically painted model: The featured toy model is much larger than a real Asian giant hornet, which only grow to about two inches long — large for a hornet, but not nearly as big as the model: It is also true that their stings can be deadly. Shunichi Makino, director general of the Hokkaido Research Center for Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute in Japan, told CNN that the hornet kills a few dozen people every year:
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