This species has rapidly spread through western Europe, with a huge impact on other flying insect populations
Invertebrate of the year 2024: all hail Earth’s spineless heroesIn praise of bees: the Cupid of the flowering worldNominate your UK invertebrate species of the year
We live in dark times. Storm clouds gather over our nations, politics and planet. Let rip the end of days. We’re entering an era of suffering, tyranny and predatory, invasive wasps. So vote baddie. Vote end times. Vote for the Asian or yellow-legged hornet.
Like Trump, Putin, Netanyahu and Lee Anderson, this mortal creature is both terrifying and weird in its implausible lust for power and domination.
Welcome to the Guardian’s UK invertebrate of the year competition. Every day between 2 April and 12 April we’ll be profiling one of the incredible invertebrates that live in and around the UK. Let us know which invertebrates you think we should be including here. And at midnight on Friday 12 April, voting will open to decide which is our favourite invertebrate – for now – with the winner to be announced on Monday 15 April.
