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Daily and Seasonal Extranidal Behaviour Variations in the Invasive Yellow-Legged Hornet, Vespa velutina Lepeletier (Hymenoptera: Vespidae)

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Abstract

In eusocial insect species, the nest represents the fundamental element of the colony. Extranidal activities (foraging, nest maintenance, defence) are fundamental for the development and the survival of the colony. Therefore, they may represent interesting targets to disrupt to limit their expansion in case of pest species such as Vespa velutina, an alien predator of domestic honeybees in Europe. An accurate knowledge of the pattern of activity of this pest’s colonies is therefore required. Due to the highly defensive nature of this hornet, a video monitoring was realized on two colonies during their growth from August to November. Three major behaviours were monitored: nest maintenance, patrolling on the nest and foraging flights. Although of different size and monitored during different years, the two colonies exhibited similar patterns of daily and seasonal variation. This work is a first step in the study of this pest especially in view of control program.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Mr. Christian Ceyral for allowing us raising hornet nests in his property and for his help. This work was supported by the Fondation pour la Recherche sur la Biodiversité (FRB, Wasprey project), FranceAgriMer (grant #797/2007–2010). Financial support was also provided by CNRS, IRD and INRA SPE department core budgets.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. UMR CNRS 7372 Centre d’Etudes Biologiques de Chizé, Université de la Rochelle, 79360, Villiers en Bois, France

    Karine Monceau

  2. UMR 1065 Santé et Agroécologie du Vignoble, INRA, F-33883, Villenave d’Ornon, France

    Amélie Tourat, Olivier Bonnard & Denis Thiéry

  3. CNRS, Laboratoire Evolution, Génomes, Comportement, Ecologie 91198– Gif-sur-Yvette, France and Université Paris-Sud 11, Orsay, France

    Mariangela Arca

  4. Unité de Recherche IRD 072, Laboratoire Evolution, Génomes, Comportement, Ecologie CNRS, Unité IRD, 91198– Gif-sur-Yvette, France and Université Paris-Sud 11, Orsay, France

    Mariangela Arca & Gérard Arnold

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  1. Karine Monceau
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  2. Amélie Tourat
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  3. Mariangela Arca
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  4. Olivier Bonnard
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  5. Gérard Arnold
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  6. Denis Thiéry
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Correspondence to Denis Thiéry.

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Monceau, K., Tourat, ., Arca, M. et al. Daily and Seasonal Extranidal Behaviour Variations in the Invasive Yellow-Legged Hornet, Vespa velutina Lepeletier (Hymenoptera: Vespidae). J Insect Behav 30, 220–230 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10905-017-9607-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10905-017-9607-3

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