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In May 2020, The New York Times reported that Asian giant hornets, often referred to as murder hornets, had been spotted for the first time in the United States. This was not welcome news, and social media sites quickly filled up with alarming images of these large insects. One such photograph supposedly showed four murder hornets in the palm of a person's hand: This is a genuine photograph of Asian giant hornets. A 2010 article from National Geographic described these hornets as small but highly efficient killing [machines] that were approximately 2 inches long with a 3-inch wingspan. Although people have died from this hornet's painful sting, the insects are only highly efficient killing machines when it comes to bees. National Geographic wrote: The above-displayed photograph was taken in 2011 by Devon Henderson and shows four dead Asian giant hornet queens in the palm of the photographer's hand. This image was originally posted to Henderson's Flickr account dedicated to Hymenoptera, a large order of insects which includes wasps, bees, and ants. Henderson noted in the comments that these bugs were all deceased (she acquired the bugs from a website called Insect-Sale) and that queen Japanese giant hornets, a colored variant of the Asian giant hornet, were 40-45 millimeters long (approximately 1.75 inches). She wrote: This is not the first time we've researched Asian giant hornets. In 2018, we examined another photograph that supposedly showed a massive giant hornet (False), and in 2020 we took a look at a defense mechanism of the Japanese honeybee which involved a swarming bee ball that cooked these large predators to death (True).
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