Daily and Seasonal Extranidal Behaviour Variations

Authors: Karine Monceau Amélie Tourat Mariangela Arca Olivier Bonnard Gérard Arnold Denis Thiéry

Publish Date: 2017/03/10

Volume: 30, Issue: 2, Pages: 220-230

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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 programWe 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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