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Biology of Vespine Wasps
... The genus Vespa, natively distributed in tropical, subtropical, and temperate Asia, features several invasive species such as V. velutina [1][2][3] and potentially invasive species such as V. mandarinia [4][5][6][7]. Several hornet species are mass murderers of honeybees [8,9], and the diversity and distribution of hornets closely mirror those of honeybees. This dependence of the hornets on honeybees for food led to an interesting evolutionary twist. ...
... Its invasion of Europe [11] severely affected European apiculture, leading to tens of millions of dollars in management costs [12]. While the Asian honeybee (Apis cerana) has evolved a special thermal defense against local hornets [13,14], the European honeybee (Apis mellifera) remains largely defenseless against this new predator [9,15,16], although a defense by asphyxiation has been observed in Cyprian honeybees, A. mellifera cypria [17]. Probably because of the weaker defense in A. mellifera than in A. cerana against hornet predators, the bee-hawking success rate is three times greater when V. velutina prey on A. mellifera than on A. cerana [18]. ...
The Asian hornet, Vespa velutina, is an invasive species that has not only expanded its range in Asia but also invaded European countries, incurring significant costs on the local honey and bee industry. This phylogeographic study aims to trace the evolutionary trajectory of V. velutina and its close relatives, aiming to identify features that characterize an invasive species. The last successful invasion of Vespa velutina into France occurred in 2002.40, and into South Korea in 2002.77, estimated by fitting a logistic equation to the number of observations over time. The instantaneous rate of increase is 1.3667 for V. velutina in France and 0.2812 in South Korea, consistent with the interpretation of little competition in France and strong competition from local hornet species in South Korea. The invasive potential of two sister lineages can be compared by their distribution area when proper statistical adjustments are made to account for differences in sample size. V. velutina has a greater invasive potential than its sister lineage. The ancestor of V. velutina split into two lineages, one found in Indonesia/Malaysia and the other colonizing the Asian continent. The second lineage split into a sedentary clade inhabiting Pakistan and India, and an invasive lineage colonizing much of Southeast Asia. This latter lineage gave rise to subspecies V. v. nigrithorax that invaded France, South Korea, and Japan. My software PGT, which generates geophylogenies and computes geographic areas for individual taxa, is useful for understanding biogeography in general and invasive species in particular. I discussed the conceptual formulation of an index of invasiveness for comparison between sister lineages.
... The genus Vespa, natively distributed in tropical, subtropical, and temperate Asia, features several invasive species such as V. crabro Linnaeus 1758 and V. velutina Lepeletier, 1836 (Hymenoptera, Vespidae) [1][2][3] and potentially invasive species such as V. mandarinia Smith, 1852 [4][5][6][7]. Several hornet species are mass murderers of honeybees [8,9], and the diversity and distribution of hornets closely mirror those of honeybees. This dependence of the hornets on honeybees for food led to an interesting evolutionary twist. ...
... Its invasion of Europe [11] severely affected European apiculture, leading to tens of millions of dollars in management costs [12]. While the Asian honeybee (Apis cerana) has evolved a special thermal defense against local hornets [13,14], the European honeybee (Apis mellifera) remains largely defenseless against this new predator [9,15,16]. A defense by the balling behavior has been observed in Cyprian honeybees, A. mellifera cypria, against the sympatric oriental hornets, V. orientalis [17], and in Italian honeybees, A. mellifera ligustica, against the While food is often a key environmental factor limiting the geographic distribution of many species, it is not so in the case of hornets. ...
The Asian hornet, Vespa velutina, is an invasive species that has not only expanded its range in Asia but has also invaded European countries, and it incurs significant costs on local apiculture. This phylogeographic study aims to trace the evolutionary trajectory of V. velutina and its close relatives; it aims to identify features that characterize an invasive species. The last successful invasion of Vespa velutina into France occurred in late May, 2002, and into South Korea in early October, 2002, which were estimated by fitting a logistic equation to the number of observations over time. The instantaneous rate of increase is 1.3667 for V. velutina in France and 0.2812 in South Korea, which are consistent with the interpretation of little competition in France and strong competition from local hornet species in South Korea. The invasive potential of two sister lineages can be compared by their distribution area when proper statistical adjustments are made to account for differences in sample size. V. velutina has a greater invasive potential than its sister lineage. The ancestor of V. velutina split into two lineages, one found in Indonesia/Malaysia and the other colonizing the Asian continent. The second lineage split into a sedentary clade inhabiting Pakistan and India and an invasive lineage colonizing much of Southeast Asia. This latter lineage gave rise to the subspecies V. v. nigrithorax, which invaded France, South Korea, and Japan. My software PGT version 1.5, which generates geophylogenies and computes geographic areas for individual taxa, is useful for understanding biogeography in general and invasive species in particular. I discussed the conceptual formulation of an index of invasiveness for a comparison between sister lineages.
... In particular, the impacts of Vespidae wasps on apiculture have garnered much attention, probably because they prey on bees (Apidae), leading to destructive impacts on global apiculture [3][4][5][6]. With their larger bodies compared to bees, thick chitinous armors to fend off attacks, powerful mandibles, and deadly stings, invasive wasps pose a serious threat to various species of honey bees [7][8][9]. Additionally, although their establishment time varies with species, they can establish viable populations in very short periods. For example, Vespa velutina established its population ca. ...
... We compiled three categories of predictors to calibrate maps of habitat suitability and potential ranges for each invasive wasp species (Supplementary Materials S2), i.e., climate (19), land-use (8), and topographical predictors (3), amounting to 30 predictors (Supplementary Materials S2). The climate predictors consisted of eight temperature and eleven precipitation factors (Supplementary Materials S2). ...
Until now, no study has examined the future range dynamics of major invasive wasp species to assess their future impacts on global apiculture. Here, we developed 12 species distribution models to calibrate the future range dynamics of 12 major invasive Vespidae wasp species under a unified framework. An increase in their habitat suitability was identified in more than 75% of global land. Substantial range expansions were detected for all 12 species, and they were primarily induced by future climate changes. Notably, Polistes dominula and Vespa crabro had the largest potential ranges under all scenarios, suggesting their greater impact on global apiculture. Polistes chinensis and Vespa velutina nigrithorax had the highest range expansion ratios, so they warrant more urgent attention than the other species. Polistes versicolor and P. chinensis are expected to exhibit the largest centroid shifts, suggesting that substantial shifts in prioritizing regions against their invasions should be made. Europe and the eastern part of the USA were future invasion hotspots for all major invasive wasp species, suggesting that apiculture might face more pronounced threats in these regions than in others. In conclusion, given their substantial range shifts, invasive wasps will likely have increasingly negative impacts on global apiculture in the future.
... The Vespinae subfamily comprised ~60 eusocial species of hornets and yellowjacket wasps (Matsuura 1990) and includes Vespula consobrina (blackjacket), Vespula vidua (widow yellowjacket), and Vespula pensylvanica (western yellowjacket). The majority of evolutionary, ecological, and behavioral research in the genus Vespula has been restricted to members of large-colony species in the vulgaris group such as V. germanica, V. vulgaris, V. maculifrons, and V. pensylvanica (Edwards 1980, Greene 1991, Lopez-Osorio et al. 2014, Lester and Beggs 2019, Sankovitz et al. 2022. ...
Genetic linkage maps are valuable resources for investigating chromosomal structure, quantifying karyotype, estimating recombination rates, and improving preexisting genome assemblies. Comparative linkage mapping , in turn, broadens our understanding of the phylogenetic history of these genomic features. Through an assessment of synteny (the conservation of gene order on homologous chromosomes in different species) and variation in recombination rate, we can begin to understand how genomic features change during the evolution of distinct species. Here, we construct high-density genetic linkage maps for 3 Vespidae wasp species from the Vespula genus: Vespula consobrina, Vespula pensylvanica, and Vespula vidua to investigate shared gen-omic architecture between these 3 yellowjacket wasp species. We show that these species exhibit high levels of collinearity, often in chromosome-length blocks of synteny, with some evidence for small interchromosomal rearrangements. We also identify 2 "inversions" in all 3 species that are likely artifacts from the genome assembly process. In addition, we map genome-wide recombination rates and reveal the recombination landscape to be highly variable on intrachromosomal, interchromosomal, and interspecific scales. Genome-wide recombination rates are high for all three Vespula species, (V. pensylvanica: 22.7 cM/Mb, V. consobrina: 24.3 cM/Mb, and V. vidua: 24.7 cM/Mb), which is consistent with findings of high recombination rates for other eusocial species. Our high-quality linkage maps will be resources for ongoing evolutionary genetics studies interested in the genome evolution of social wasps.
... Conversely, the native European hornet Vespa crabro (hereafter Vc) prefers more protected nesting sites, such as tree cavities, tool sheds or attics during its entire colony cycle (Archer 1984(Archer , 1985Nixon 1985, Matsuura 1991. Also nest size and shape might be used as cues to infer the species that has built the nest, since large mature nests of Vv can reach a height of up to 1 m and a length of 40-70 cm, containing more than 13000 cells , whereas Vc nests are smaller in size, with a number of cells between 600 and 4500 (Matsuura & Yamane 1990;Archer 1993). Nonetheless, no specific study has so far carried out a systematic comparison of the nest characteristics between the two species. ...
In the fight against invasive alien species, timely reporting is essential to monitor their spread and face the invasion.
This is particularly evident in the case of Vespa velutina nigrithorax, an invasive hornet species with a significant ecological,
economic, and public health impact. V. velutina colony reports are often late or dubious, as they are represented by
the discovery of abandoned nests found in late autumn or winter when the colony has completed its cycle. Abandoned colonies
of V. velutina might be in some cases misidentified with nests of the native European hornet Vespa crabro. Verifying
whether a nest belongs to V. velutina could be fundamental for monitoring its presence and expansion. Thus, a reliable
method to correctly assign an abandoned nest to its exact species would be important for the management of this invasive
threat. In these hornets, the nest material is characterized by a blend of chemical compounds that reflects its inhabitants
and could be used for species identification. Here, by using gas-chromatography coupled with mass-spectrometry, we
investigated the differences between the chemical signature of V. velutina and V. crabro nests, characterizing for the first
time the nest chemical profile of the latter. Among the identified 43 compounds, two compounds were unique to V. crabro,
and another two were found only in V. velutina nests. These discriminant compounds provide a diagnostic tool for the species
identification of abandoned hornet nests, especially when uncertain reports come from areas on the invasion front or
not yet invaded.
... Affected berries ooze fermented grape pulp that smells of acetic acid and drips onto other berries within the cluster [10][11][12][13]. The SR-associated microorganisms penetrate berries through cracks and wounds in the berry skin that are caused by both abiotic (e.g., rain, high humidity, hail, and berry abrasion) and biotic (e.g., pests and birds) factors, including fungal pathogens such as Botrytis cinerea [14] and Erysiphe necator [15], feeding activity of berry moths such as the tortricid Lobesia botrana [16] and wasps [17], or oviposition of Drosophila suzuki flies [18]. The typical smell of affected berries [19] is caused by the activity of acetic acid bacteria (AAB) such as Acetobacter, Gluconobacter, and Gluconacetobacter, which oxidate the ethanol produced by the fermentation to acetic acids of berry sugars by non-Saccharomyces yeasts [20]. ...
Sour rot (SR) is a disease complex that affects grape berries during ripening and can cause severe yield losses and deterioration of wine quality. The etiology and epidemiology of the disease remain uncertain, which has severely limited the development of specific, targeted management strategies. In this study, a network meta-analysis was applied to data collected through a previous systematic literature review for statistically comparing the efficacy of different methods for the control of SR and some filamentous fungi isolated from rotten berries. Use of either synthetic fungicides (CHEM) and natural compounds or biocontrol microorganisms (BIO) provided partial and variable control of SR; however, the efficacy of BIO was similar to, or higher than, that provided by CHEM. Agronomic practices (AGRO) had a significant but lower effect on SR. The integration of different control methods (IPM) provided better and less variable disease control than any single method. Natural compounds, such as zeolites and bicarbonates, and microorganisms (e.g., yeasts Candida and Aureobasidium) are also promising alternatives to synthetic fungicides in SR control.
Hymenoptera is one of the largest orders of insects. It consists many species of bees, wasps, hornets, sawflies, and ants. Wasps are important to natural and biological pest due to their predaceous parasitoid nature. Stinging behavior is one of the salient aspects of social hymenopterans. The mortality and morbidity from these bites reported in many districts of Tamil Nadu and around the world. The current study investigates the molecular phylogeny, histology of venom gland and kairomones profile of chosen Vespidae species from the northwest districts (1.Villupuram-Thadagam, 2.Nagapattinam - Mudhalaimedu, 3. Dharmapuri- Lourdhupuram and 4. Chennai – Kilpauk cemetery) of Tamil Nadu. The hornets nests were carefully observed in day time and collected at night time. The phylogenetic relationship analysis was carried out using cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) and PCR was performed to amplify COI fragment. The amplified COI regions (the range from 577 base pairs to 601 base pairs nucleotides in length) were sequenced, analysed and DNA barcoded. The four novel nucleotide sequences of COI gene were deposited into the GenBank database and obtained accession numbers for Vespa tropica haematodes ( MN893829.1), Vespa affinis (MN 853754.1), Polistes olivaceus (MT133311.1), and Ropalidia marginata (MT178807.1). Multiple sequence alignment was performed using clustal W in MEGA 6.0. and Phylogenetic analysis, Maximum likelihood, and Neighbour joining tree was constructed. The results revealed that the V. tropica , and V. affinis are sister group and share a common ancestor and V. tropica, V. affinis were found to be more close relatives than P. olivaceous and R. marginata. This study provides more information on Vespa species for researchers, agriculturalists and others in the prevention of the casualties by Vespa bites and the annoyance inflicted on the people.
Social organisation of eusocial insects requires efficient communication among conspecifics, involving various signals. Among them, Cuticular Hydrocarbons Compounds are used like chemical signals for recognition processes. These semiochemical compounds, which can vary qualitatively and quantitatively, form an individual chemical signature carrying identity of each congeners which contribute to the social cohesion of the colony members. In this study, we analysed the chemical signature of workers of the eusocial and invasive Vespidae species, the Yellow-legged hornet, Vespa velutina nigrithorax. The chemical communication system between hornets’ workers is relatively unknown and their social organisation poorly documented. However, a strong chemical heterogeneity between castes and colonies have been previously identified in the Yellow-legged hornet, suggesting a possible chemical diversity between workers. Our results showed a strong chemical heterogeneity mainly explained by their colonial origin, as previously described, but also by their behaviour at a given time. In this study, four behaviours have been reported in the field and could be assigned to a workers’ sub-caste: animal foragers, builders, defenders and material foragers. A chemical separation of individuals into two groups have been observed, where animal foragers exhibit a clear separation of their chemical profiles compared to their counterparts. Also, animal foragers had more alkenes and fewer branched alkanes than the other workers. This exploratory study demonstrates that workers of this invasive hornet species present different cuticular profiles, probably used in both inter and intra-specific recognition phenomena. This is therefore a first step towards understanding the chemical communication involved in the social organisation of hornet workers.
Vespa hornet larvae produce a rhythmic 'rasping' sound by rubbing their mandibles against the cell walls of their nests. The call is thought to be a larval provisioning cue. However, detailed observations of larval calls have been limited to a few species, and it is not known whether the call can be influenced by the external environment, such as light and time of day, or by internal larval states, such as feeding. We conducted laboratory observations of larval calls under workerless conditions to investigate the effects of 1) larval stage and size, 2) daily variation, 3) light conditions, and 4) feeding on sound production. Vespa mandarinia larvae produced sounds regardless of their status, such as position, light condition, time of day, and worker absence. During mastication, the larvae stopped calling. A key finding of this research is the novel discovery that larvae produce sounds at night, which is a previously undocumented behaviour.
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