First report on the emergency dance of Apis ceranajaponica, which induces odorous plant material collection in response to Vespa mandarinia japonica scouting

Abstract

Previously, we observed several instances in which Apis cerana japonica performed dancing around the hive entrance and smeared plant materials there immediately after scouting of Vespa mandarinia japonica. In this study, we conducted a series of attack simulation experiments with three hornet species to investigate whether the hive entrance dance is a specific response to V. m. japonica scouting. We also tracked dancing bees and dance‐follower bees to observe whether they perform hive entrance smearing. Only V. m. japonica scouting induced dancing, and we confirmed that dancing and dance‐follower bees performed smearing behavior at the hive entrance. These results suggest that the hive entrance dance informs nestmates of a specific emergency and of the urgent need to collect odorous plant materials as a counter‐attack strategy.

Giants are coming? Predicting the potential spread and impacts of the giant Asian hornet (Vespa mandarinia, Hymenoptera:Vespidae) in the USA

“…The occurrence dataset was collected from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) database and previously published studies, 18,22,26,[39][40][41][42][43][44] compiling an initial database of 275 occurrences for the native area (Table S1). 45 We considered only records including geographical coordinates and deleted duplicated occurrences.…”

Honey bees (Apis cerana) use animal feces as a tool to defend colonies against group attack by giant hornets (Vespa soror)

“…When potential hornet scouts are detected, A. cerana workers retreat into nests, produce vibratory signals that encode the severity of threat at the nest entrance, and stimulate their nestmates (in part by the release of alarm pheromone) to prepare to "heat ball" scouting hornets [7,11,20,43,44]. In Japan, A. c. japonica has been documented waggle dancing at hive entrances after exposure to tethered V. mandarinia, a behavior that stimulates foragers to collect and smear plant-based materials around nest entrances, possibly interfering with pheromones deposited by hornet scouts [45,46].…”

“…In this recently described behavior, workers carry gnawed plant material in their mandibles and then smear their juices around nest entrances, leaving dark stains. Although we did not study how filth foraging is organized, we observed several workers performing "emergency" dances outside of hive entrances, a behavior that recruits nestmates to smear plant material in Japan [46]. It is fascinating that A. cerana has been observed foraging for plant material in the northern part of its range and for filth (feces) in the southern part of its range to defend nests against attack by different, but equally deadly, mass-attacking Vespa predators.…”

“…The plants workers smeared on hives in response to V. mandarinia attack in Japan belong to groups that produce compounds that are known to repel insects [46, e.g., 76, 77] and are also used in chrysomelid fecal shields [75]. It is also possible that A. cerana forages for plant-derived defensive compounds both from plants directly [45,46] and from the feces of herbivores that eat them (our study) in response to attack by giant hornets. While further study is needed to determine the proximate mechanisms by which fecal spotting repels entrance-focused attacks by V. soror workers, what is just as interesting is that A. cerana workers forage on feces and appear immune to these aversions.…”

“…japonica has been documented waggle dancing at hive entrances after exposure to tethered V . mandarinia , a behavior that stimulates foragers to collect and smear plant-based materials around nest entrances, possibly interfering with pheromones deposited by hornet scouts [ 45 , 46 ].…”