Giant hornet (Vespa soror) attacks trigger frenetic antipredator signalling in honeybee (Apis cerana) colonies
| Autor: | Olivia M. Knight, Heather R. Mattila, Hanh Duc Pham, Ngoc T Phan, Hannah G Kernen, Lien T P Nguyen, Gard W. Otis |
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| Rok vydání: | 2021 |
| Předmět: |
alarm signals
Multidisciplinary communication Science Zoology eusocial insects Biology biology.organism_classification Eusociality Predation ALARM Signalling Nest Vespa soror Organismal and Evolutionary Biology multimodal signals predation animal sociality Nasonov pheromone Research Articles Apis cerana |
| Zdroj: | Royal Society Open Science Royal Society Open Science, Vol 8, Iss 11 (2021) |
| ISSN: | 2054-5703 |
| DOI: | 10.1098/rsos.211215 |
| Popis: | Asian honeybees use an impressive array of strategies to protect nests from hornet attacks, although little is understood about how antipredator signals coordinate defences. We compared vibroacoustic signalling and defensive responses ofApis ceranacolonies that were attacked by either the group-hunting giant hornetVespa sororor the smaller, solitary-hunting hornetVespa velutina.Apis ceranacolonies produced hisses, brief stop signals and longer pipes under hornet-free conditions. However, hornet-attack stimuli—andV. sororworkers in particular—triggered dramatic increases in signalling rates within colonies. Soundscapes were cacophonous whenV. sororpredators were directly outside of nests, in part because of frenetic production of antipredator pipes, a previously undescribed signal. Antipredator pipes share acoustic traits with alarm shrieks, fear screams and panic calls of primates, birds and meerkats. Workers making antipredator pipes exposed their Nasonov gland, suggesting the potential for multimodal alarm signalling that warns nestmates about the presence of dangerous hornets and assembles workers for defence. Concurrent observations of nest entrances showed an increase in worker activities that support effective defences against giant hornets.Apis ceranaworkers flexibly employ a diverse alarm repertoire in response to attack attributes, mirroring features of sophisticated alarm calling in socially complex vertebrates. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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