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Flight activity
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Vespa orientalis
Hard cuticle
Large size
Strong mandibles
Confronting hornets during
attacks
Movement of
defending honeybees
METHODOLOGY
“Arresting hornets”
Anesthetizing-Adjusting hornets
Monitoring
METHODOLGY
Image and video
analysis (ImageJ,
Pinacle Liquid
Edition V6)
Seasonal effect of
defensive
behaviour
Graphs of moving
patterns in time
(at flight boards)
Seasonal effect of defensive behaviour
March 2006
May 2006
July 2006
August 2006
December 2005
March 2006
May 2006
July 2006
August 2006
Killing the enemy during balling-
Suffocation
Adjustment of hornets
Monitoring the normal respiration rhythm
Monitoring the respiration rhythm during balling simulation
(Zafeiridou & Theophilidis 2006)
Monitoring the respiration of Vespa
orientalis under normal conditions and
during simulation of balling
Assessment of balling duration while preventing hornets
from blocking the abdominal function of hornets
Apidologie 39:468-474
Materials and Methods
Recording sounds at
WAV format (Sennheiser
ME64, Marantz PMD
670)-93 successful
recordings
Recordings analysis with
Seewave v. 1.2 (Sueur et
al., 2006)
Reproduction of sounds-
Monitoring possible
effects on honeybees’
behaviour
Two successive hisses produced during hornet attacks: spectrogram
(frequency vs. time vs. relative amplitude in relative dB)
and oscillogram (relative amplitude vs. time).
Comparison of hiss and buzz acoustic
characteristics.
No differences
between
colonies
Absence of
anacoustical
“signature”
Reproduction of sounds-Monitoring
possible effects on honeybees’ behaviour
Control 1 2s natural Continuant Artificial Control 2
Colony no sound sound 2s Natural sound no sound
pause sound 6.60kHz
1 53 37 24 22 48
2 98 162 136 30 43
3 96 78 129 34 57
4 412 344 454 355 575
5 233 243 251 126 226
6 66 52 38 33 56
7 462 389 502 403 621
8 105 94 133 40 74
9 204 216 22 117 198
10 78 99 83 25 46
Average 180.7a 171.4a 177.2a 118.5a 194.4a
Conclusions
The Cyprian honeybee Apis mellifera, demonstrates
an effective defensive behaviour against the
Oriental hornet Vespa orientalis
The expression of its defensive behaviour has some
specificities compared to other species or
subspecies:
-Different and contrary defensive “patterns” within
the same apiary
-Effective use of propolis walls during defense
-No stinging
-Suffocating hornets to death in balls of workers
-Sound emission of high frequent sounds
Acknowledgments
Special thanks to: