Distribution: Europe, north to 60-64º N (Pekkarinen, 1989), Asia minor, Transcaucasia, N Iran, W Turkmenistan (Birula, 1924 [1925], 1925) (?vagrant), E Kazakhstan, W Mongolia, China, Korea, Japan (Kurzenko, 1995). Introduced into Canada and USA (Carpenter, Kojima, 1997). Russia: European Russia, N Caucasus, Siberia, Middle Amur, Primorye, Sahkalin (Tobias, 1978; Kurzenko, 1995; Dubatolov, 1998). Additional information on the site of Prof. J.Kojima.

Localities from collections of SZMN, ZIN and literature: Russia: Orenburg Province (not shown on map!): Orenburg (ZIN collection); Sol'-Iletsk and Izobil'noe (Sol'-Iletsk District; by courtesy of V.A.Nemkov). Chelyabinsk Province: Kyshtym (Birula, 1924 [1925]), Kisegach (Chebarkul district); Kurgan Province: Bashkirskoe, Berezovo, Red’kino, Makushino, Utyak; Temlyakovo (Ketovo District), Sumki (Polovinnoe District); Tyumen Province: 6 km SW from Tyunevo (Nizhnyaya Tavda district), Tyumen; Khanty-Mansi Autonomous District: Oktyabr’skoe. Tomsk Province: Ust’-Churul’ka (Kargasok District); Kolomino (Podgornoe District), Tomsk. Novosibirsk Province: Novodubrovka (Kuibyshevo District), Skala and Lake Menzelinskoe (Kolyvan District), Novosibirsk, Zherebtsovo (Moshkovskii District); Altaiskii Krai: Klyuchi; Kolyvan' (Kur'ya District), Tulata (Charyshskoe District), Barnaul, Soldatovo (Petropavlovskoe District); Altai Republic: Katanda (Ust'-Koksa District), Inya (Birula, 1924 [1925]), Artybash on the Lake Teletskoe. Kemerovo Province: Kuzedeevo (Gornaya Shoriya); Khakasia: Abaza; Krasnoyarsk Province: Krasnoyarsk (Birula, 1924 [1925]), Nature Reserve Stolby, Rybnoe on Angara river (Birula, 1924 [1925]); Irkutsk Province: Bumbuiskoe (ZIN collection); Chita Province: Chita; Nizhnyaya Kuenga; a pass in 25 km E from Gazimurskii Zavod; Olochi; 6-7 km NE of Budyumkan village; 10 km S of Uryupino; Amur Province: Tukuringra Mts. on river Zeya (ZIN collection), river Pikan near town Zeya (ZIN collection), Kalinovka and Kuznetsovo (Magdagachi district), Blagoveshchensk, Malaya Sazanka (12 km SSW from Svobodnyi), Svobodnyi, 17 km N from Konstantinovka, Voskresenka (62 km WNW from Belogorsk), Nature Reserve Khinganskii (Kurzenko, 1992), Talakan. Jewish Province: between Obluch'e and Khingansk, Nature Reserve Bastak; Khabarovsk Province: Khabarovsk vic., Anyui National Park (Bikhan), Gornyi, Komsomolsk-na-Amure, Kiselevka, Arkhangelskoe (Amur river mouth); Primorskii Krai: 20 km NNE from Luchegorsk: upflow from the river Alchat mouth (ZIN collection), river Iman (now - Bol'shaya Ussurka) in 25 verst from Kartun (now - Vostretsovo, ZIN collection), 20 km N from Chernyshevka, Yakovlevka (ZIN collection), Gornotaezhnoe (20 km SE from Ussuriisk), Nature Reserve Ussuriiskii, Vladivostok, including Okeanskaya (ZIN collection), Gusevskii Mine (7 km NE from Zanadvorovka), Nature Reserve Kedrovaya Pad'; Sakhalin: Onory, Nyiwo (Kono, Tamanuki, 1928), 20 km NW from Aniwa (Kurzenko, 2004), 12 km NW from Aniwa. Kazakhstan: Serebryansk, 30 km NE of Ust’-Kamenogorsk. Mongolia: Uws aimak: "Ort Namir" [=Namir-Gol] (Birula, 1924 [1925]). China: Nei Monggol: Hinggan Meng: Jalaid Qi (Ma et al., 1991).

Notes: the species was recorded also from south part of Buryatia, Khabarovsk Province, whole Sakhalin (Kurzenko, 1995).

Taxa described from Asian Russia and adjacent territories:
Vespa crabroniformis Smith, 1852, Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. (N.S.) 2 (2): 40 - "North China".
Vespa crabro var. altaica Pérez, 1910, Actes Soc. Linn. Bordeaux 64: 5 - "Altaï".
Vespa crabro nigra Birula, 1925, Doklady Rossiiskoi Akademii Nauk [Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences de Russie] 1925: 55 - "[West Siberia from Urals to Enisei and slightly after Enisei]".

References
Carpenter, J.M. & Kojima, J. 1997. Checklist of the species in the subfamily Vespinae (Insecta: Hymenoptera: Vespidae). - Nat. Hist. Bull. Ibaraki Univ. 1: 51-92.
Birula, A. 1924 [1925]. Ueber die russischen Wespen und ihre geographische Verbreitung. - Arch. Naturgesch. (Abt. A) 90 (12): 88-102.
Birula, A. 1925. [Sur la distribution géographique du frelon commun (Vespa crabro L.) et sur ses races climatiques]] // Doklady Rossiiskoi Akademii Nauk [Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences de Russie] 1925: 53-56. (In Russian).
Dubatolov, V.V. 1998. Social wasps (Hymenoptera, Vespidae: Polistinae, Vespinae) of Siberia in the collection of Siberian Zoological Museum. - Far Eastern Entomologist 57: 1-11.
Dubatolov, V.V. 2011. Social wasps (Hymenoptera, Vespidae: Polistinae, Vespinae) of the Bastak Nature Reserve (Jewish Autonomous Province, Amur basin). - Amurian Zoological Journal 3 (1).
Dubatolov, V.V., Dolgikh A.M. 2009. Social wasps (Hymenoptera, Vespidae: Polistinae, Vespinae) of the Bolshekhekhtsyrskii nature reserve (the Khabarovsk suburbs), with notes on their distribution in the Lower Amur. - Amurian zoological journal 1 (1): 76-82.
Dubatolov, V.V., Kojima, J., Carpenter, J.M., Lvovsky, A. 2003. Subspecies of Vespa crabro in two different papers by Birula in 1925. - Entomological Science 6: 215-216.
Kôno, H., Tamanuki, K. 1928. Insecten-Ausbeute aus Nord-Sachalin. - Insecta Matsumurana 2 (3): 128-129.
Kurzenko, N.V. 1992. [Fam. Vespidae]. In: [Insects of the Nature Reserve Khinganskii]. Part 2. Dal'nauka, Vladivostok: 251-254. (In Russian).
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Malikova, E.I., Redko, Yu.S., Streltzov, A.N. 2007. [New data on social wasps (Vespidae) and bees (Apidae) from Bastak Nature Reserve]. - Priroda zapovednika “Bastak” [Nature of Bastak Nature Reserve]. Blagoveshchensk 4: P. 55-57. (In Russian).
Pekkarinen, A. 1989. The hornet (Vespa crabro L.) in Finland and its changing northern limit in northwestern Europe. - Ent. Tidskr. 110: 161-164.
Pérez, J. 1910. Notes sur les Vespides. - Actes Soc. Linn. Bordeaux 64: 1-20.
Smith, F. 1852. Descriptions of some new and apparently undescribed species of hymenopterous insects from North China, collected by Robert Fortune, Esq. - Trans. Ent. Soc. London (N.S.) 2 (2): 33-45, pl. VIII.
Streltzov, A.N., Kogdina, Yu.A. 2005. [First data on social wasps (Hymenoptera, Vespidae) from Bastak Nature Reserve]. - Priroda zapovednika “Bastak” [Nature of Bastak Nature Reserve]. Blagoveshchensk 2: 45-46. (In Russian).
Tobias, V.I. 1978. [Superfamily Vespoidea - hornets.1. Family Vespidae]. In: [A key to insects from the European part of the USSR]. T. III. [Hymenoptera]. P. 1. Nauka, Leningrad: 147-152. (In Russian).