Vespa simillima, the yellow hornet, including the color form known as the Japanese hornet or Japanese yellow hornet (キイロスズメバチ), is a common hornet species in the Eastern Hemisphere. The typical mainland color form (Japanese:ケブカスズメバチ, Korean: 털보말벌, "hairy wasp") is darker and hairier than the yellow form; it lives in Hokkaido, the Korean Peninsula, Eastern Siberia and China, but is less common elsewhere in Japan, where the yellow color form predominates. It should not be confused with the Asian giant hornet (Vespa mandarinia), which has a color form sometimes referred to as the "Japanese giant hornet". While there is a history of recognizing subspecies within many hornets, the most recent taxonomic revision treats all subspecific names in the genus Vespa as synonyms, effectively relegating them to no more than informal names for regional color forms.

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