An Asian hornet has been spotted in Amsterdam, according to several photographs submitted to website Waarneming.nl, which which monitors the arrival of ‘rare’ species in the Netherlands.

The insect was spotted in the Westpoort area of the city on Wednesday and the arrival is bad news for the honey bees and other pollinating insects which form the hornet’s prey, wild-life experts say.

Asian hornets were first sighted in the Netherlands in Zeeland a year ago and that nest was quickly destroyed. ‘But it is not good news that the insect has been spotted so deep into the Netherlands,’ Wilfred Reinhold of the Invasieve Exoten website told broadcaster RTL.

Asian hornets, which can measure up to 45mm, are the largest of the hornet species and have been on the EU list of invasive alien species since August 2016. This means the authorities are obliged to track down and destroy their nests.

That will not happen in the case of the Amsterdam sighting because the drones are now dying and the queens have also left the nest, Reinhold said. This means the hunt for the monster hornets will have to resume in the spring, he said.

‘It is great that the lady who spotted this one did not run away, but dared to take photographs,’ he said. ‘We hope that more people will dare to do the same in the future.’