Not just honeybees: predatory habits of<i>Vespa velutina</i>(Hymenoptera: Vespidae) in France

Rome, Quentin; Perrard, A.; Müller, Franck; Fontaine, Colin; Quilès, Adrien; Zuccon, Dario; Villemant, Claire

doi:10.1080/00379271.2020.1867005

Cited by 42 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…The main impact of the yellow-legged hornet is the likely decrease in honeybee (Apis mellifera) populations (Monceau et al 2013), preying also upon other pollinators and insects (Rome et al 2011(Rome et al , 2021Rojas-Nossa and Calviño-Cancela 2020). This invasion could be devastating for island ecosystems, considering the situation of the populations of honeybees (Ellis et al 2010;Dainat et al 2012), the fragility of the ecosystem (Traveset et al 2019) and the impact on endemic insects (Ikegami et al 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ensemble of small models as a tool for alien invasive species management planning: evaluation of Vespa velutina (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) under Mediterranean island conditions

2022

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Ecological niche models have proved to be a powerful tool in assessing invasiveness risk of alien species, allowing the optimization of control strategies. Vespa velutina (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) is an invasive species with strong ecological, economical and health impacts in Europe after it was first reported in France in 2004. It was detected for the first time on a Mediterranean island (Mallorca, Balearic Islands, Spain) in 2015, where a single nest was found in the northwest of the island. Immediately, a control plan was implemented. In this study, we analysed 30 occurrence data in Mallorca island to assess the suitability distribution predicted for Mediterranean island conditions using an ensemble of small models. We obtained high values of AUC (0.9165), Somers’ D (0.8331), Boyce (0.7611) and TSS (0.7754) as quality parameters of the final ensembled model. We show for the first time that there are suitable areas where this species can expand and stablish, mainly in steeper slopes and low isothermality zones. Likewise, the distribution suitability of V. velutina for other Mediterranean islands (Ibiza, Formentera, Menorca, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, Crete and Cyprus) was also explored, showing potentially suitable zones. This study provides valuable information regarding the areas in the Mediterranean islands under risk of invasion, and it could be used by both scientists and managers for an early detection and control of the invasive species due to its cost-effectiveness in terms of conservation.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ensemble of small models as a tool for alien invasive species management planning: evaluation of Vespa velutina (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) under Mediterranean island conditions

2022

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“…Over the years, this social and predatory species has caused serious negative impacts on ecosystems and pollinating species [ 17 , 18 ], mainly on Apis mellifera (honeybee) colonies [ 4 , 17 , 19 ], and has consequently caused economic problems in beekeeping and fruit production [ 20 ]. Additionally, it has caused public health problems due to stings [ 21 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microscopic Identification of Anatomical Elements and Chemical Analysis of Secondary Nests of Vespa velutina nigrithorax du Buyson

Crespo

Lousada

Fernandes

et al. 2022

Insects

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Vespa velutina accidentally arrived in Europe (France) in 2004, and rapidly expanded throughout the entire country. Its presence in mainland Portugal was first noticed in 2011. Being an invasive species with no natural predators in the region to control it, it has caused enormous environmental and economic damage, particularly on Apis mellifera (honeybee) colonies. Although there is already some research on this species’ biology, little is known about its adaption to European ecological conditions, specifically in terms of nest building. This type of hornet builds a primary nest in the spring to start a colony. During the summer, they build a secondary nest to develop the main colony. These secondary nests are ovoid-shaped and range in size from 18.7 cm to 45.0 cm in diameter and from 19.2 cm to 65.0 cm in length, attaining their highest development in late summer. The external appearance of these nests is characterized by alternating stripes that are beige and brown in color. The main objective of this study is to identify the composition and the origin of the materials that are used by Vespa velutina nigrithorax to build the outer envelope of these secondary nests. This information could be very interesting and will not only increase our knowledge on the biology of the species in regions far from its original area, but will also be relevant for the future implementation of new policies to control this invasive species by means biological control. Several samples were taken from each nest and were observed under different optical magnifying devices. In the second stage, their chemical composition was analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM/EDS). It was noticed that almost all of the materials used in the nests’ construction were lignocellulose from woody materials from both softwood (gymnosperm) and hardwood (angiosperm) forest species as well from leaves and small particles of agricultural origin (grasses). The beige strips were formed almost exclusively from woody softwood cells, while the brown strips were composed of hardwood cells, leaf tissues, and grasses. Chemically, it was noticed that this material mainly consisted of cellulose, with more than 99% being composed of C and O and very little mineral material from elements such as Na, Al, Si, K, and Ca. The achieved results allow us to state that in the construction of these secondary nests, these hornets only used organic materials that are then probably agglomerated through their mouths.

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“…Notably, and despite the already discussed limitations of our work, we did not find any genus of solitary bees or bumblebees above the threshold of 0.02% of the total number of reads. A low detectability of these taxa was also found by Rome et al (2021). The opportunistic nature of V. velutina and its predominant association with urban and agricultural areas (Choi, Martin, & Lee, 2012;Rome et al, 2015) in detriment of natural areas (Fournier, Barbet-Massin, Rome, & Courchamp, 2017), make us believe that the predation impact on these main pollinators should be low.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 88%

“…Being V. velutina an opportunistic forager, its prey diversity varies as a function of the available resources (Rome et al, 2021). Indeed, when fisheries, sea food, are available, they neglect insect prey (Monceau & Thiery, 2017).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A metabarcoding tool to detect predation of the honeybee Apis mellifera and other wild insects by the invasive Vespa velutina

et al. 2021

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The invasive Vespa velutina has been widely referred as an effective predator of honeybees.Despite the potential risk to pollination services provision and honey production, there is no accurate quantification and assessment of its real consequences for honeybees. To date, the identification of the honeybee and other insects in the diet of V. velutina has been investigated by direct observation of adult foraging or examination of food pellets. To overcome these limitations, in this study we used a DNA metabarcoding approach to evaluate the usefulness of different types of sample (jaws and stomachs collected from workers and larval faecal pellets taken from the hornet comb) to investigate the predation of V. velutina upon honeybees, and potentially on other 2 insects. Honeybee DNA was identified in all types of samples, but larval faecal pellets retrieved the higher number of reads of honeybee DNA and the largest diversity at all taxonomic levels. Over all samples we could identify 4 orders, 9 families, 6 genera and 1 species of prey. We estimate that collecting 6 workers is sufficient to identify honeybee predation by a colony using worker's jaws. Stomachs were the least useful sample type to detect honeybee DNA. The presence of honeybee DNA in all analysed colonies irrespective of collection site, and the variety of insect orders detected in the diet support current concerns over the acknowledged negative impact of V. velutina on managed honeybees and its potential threat to pollination services provision.

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Not just honeybees: predatory habits ofVespa velutina(Hymenoptera: Vespidae) in France

Cited by 42 publications

References 38 publications

Ensemble of small models as a tool for alien invasive species management planning: evaluation of Vespa velutina (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) under Mediterranean island conditions

Ensemble of small models as a tool for alien invasive species management planning: evaluation of Vespa velutina (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) under Mediterranean island conditions

Microscopic Identification of Anatomical Elements and Chemical Analysis of Secondary Nests of Vespa velutina nigrithorax du Buyson

A metabarcoding tool to detect predation of the honeybee Apis mellifera and other wild insects by the invasive Vespa velutina

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