Oriental hornet
| Oriental hornet | |
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| Vespa orientalis pollinating Drimia maritima | |
| Scientific classification | |
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V. orientalis
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| Binomial name | |
| Vespa orientalis Linnaeus, 1771
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Vespa orientalis arabica |
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| File:Vespa orientalis Distribution Map2.svg | |
| Distribution of Vespa orientalis[2][3][4] | |
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The Oriental hornet, Vespa orientalis, is a social insect of the Vespidae family. It can be found in Southwest Asia, Northeast Africa, the island of Madagascar, and parts of Southern Europe.[2] Oriental hornets have also been found in a few isolated locations such as Mexico due to human introduction.[5] The Oriental hornet lives in seasonal colonies consisting of caste system dominated by a queen.[2] The hornet builds its nests underground and communicates using sound vibrations.[6] The hornet has a yellow stripe on its cuticle (exoskeleton) which can absorb sunlight to generate a small electrical potential, and it has been suggested that this might help supply energy for digging.[7] The adult hornet eats nectar and fruits and scavenges for insects and animal proteins to feed to their young.[8] Because they are scavengers, the hornets may also serve as a transmitter of disease following consumption of infected plants.[9] The hornets are a primary pest to honey bees, attacking bee colonies to obtain honey and animal proteins.[10] The sting of an Oriental hornet can be quite painful to humans and some humans are allergic to stings.[9]
Contents
Taxonomy and phylogeny
The Oriental hornet (Vespa orientalis) belongs to the Vespidae family which consists of wasps, hornets, and yellowjackets. It is a member of genus Vespa which constitutes true hornets.[2] Vespa orientalis has unique adaptations to arid climates which disguises its phylogenic relationship to other species of the Vespa genus, making it difficult to map based on morphological data alone.[11] Thus the use of molecular data was crucial to correctly mapping its phylogenetic relationships. Based on molecular phylogenetics V. orientalis is most closely related to Vespa affinis and Vespa mocsaryana.[11]
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Description and identification
The adult hornet has two pairs of wings and a body measuring between 25 to 35 mm long.[2] Males and workers are smaller in size than the queen. Vespa orientalis is a reddish brown color and has distinctive thick yellow bands on the abdomen and yellow patches on the head between the eyes. They have very strong jaws and will bite if provoked.[2] Females (workers and queen) have an ovipositor which is a specialized organ shaped like a tube that is used for laying eggs. The ovipositor extends from the end of the abdomen and is also used as a stinger.[2] Drones (males) can be distinguished from workers (females) by the number of segments on their antenna. Drones have 13 segments while workers only have 12.[12] The Oriental hornet looks similar to the European hornet (Vespa crabro) and should not be confused with the Asian giant hornet (Vespa mandarinia) of Eastern Asia.[12]
Distribution
Oriental hornets can be found in Southwest Asia from Turkey to India and Nepal, throughout the Middle East, in Northeast Africa in countries such as Ethiopia and Somalia, and in parts of Southern Europe in Greece, Bulgaria, Malta and the southern tip of Italy.[2] Oriental hornets have been introduced by humans into additional locations including Madagascar, Mexico, Xinjiang, China as well as the occasional introduction via fruit in Belgium and the UK.[5] The Oriental hornet is the only member of the Vespa genus that can be found in desert climates such as those it inhabits in Northern Africa, the Middle-East, and parts of Southwestern Asia.[12]
Nests
The Oriental hornet typically lives in nests that it digs underground.[7] A nests contains multiple combs in which the colony lives.[6] While nests are most commonly found underground, some paper nests are constructed in protective hollows such as inside hollow trees, in shipping containers, parked vehicles, and aircraft.[2] To construct the paper nests, the workers strip the bark from twigs, tree branches, and shrubs in order to collect fiber.[2]
Colonies
Oriental hornets live in seasonal colonies which are formed every year in the spring by a single queen who mated during the previous fall.[2] During the fall, the queen lays her eggs which will develop into new queens and drones. After mating, the drones die off while the fertilized queens seek hideouts in which to hibernate for the winter.[2] The colony will grow throughout the spring and summer months until the population and activity of the colony peaks in the late summer and early fall.[6] The peak size of the colony is several thousand individuals and a colony will contain on average 3-6 combs each containing 600-900 individual cells.[2]
Behavior
Vespa orientalis is a type of social wasp. Individuals live collectively in colonies with one queen and thousands of workers. Social wasps are unusual in their practice of altruism in which non-reproductive individuals work for the benefit of the colony. This occurs because all individuals in a colony are closely related.
Social Structure
Within a colony there is a caste system that is dominated by the queen who is the only reproductive female in the colony. Subordinate to the queen are the workers (daughters) and drones (sons).[2] Like the queen, drones solely serve reproductive roles. The workers are responsible for the rest of the labor. Workers specialize in the performance of different tasks.There a workers who are responsible for foraging for food, providing shelter, defending the colony, and caring for the colony's brood which consists of the queen's offspring.[2]
Communication
Oriental hornets communicate through sound vibrations. There are three main types of vibrations used to communicate: taps to the queen, awakening taps, and larval hunger signals.[6] When workers tap while facing the queen three effects are noted: the queen starts to search the combs for vacant cells in which to lay her eggs in, the workers go back to performing their typical duties, and hunger signals by larvae cease immediately and are not resumed for at least 30 minutes.[6] The main purpose of these taps seem to be to encourage the queen to lay more eggs. Awakening taps by workers cause a general intensification of activities in the colony.[6] The effects are minimal during the day. At night, however, the vibrations wake the whole colony which causes the larvae commence their hunger signals and the workers to go forage for food to feed the larvae.[6] Larval hunger signals produce no detectable changes in larval activity during the daytime. The workers, however, will to pay more attention and give more food to the cells which are in the vicinity of where the vibrations originated.[6] At night, the larvae will emulate each other's hunger signals and awake the whole nest.[6]
Kin selection and altruism
Vespa orientalis live in colonies in which the workers are all daughters of the queen. This means that workers are all sisters. Social wasps are haplodiploid which means that males are all haploid and develop from unfertilized eggs while females are diploid and develop from eggs fertilized by drones. It is common for queens to mate with only one drone. Each drone has only one set of chromosomes to pass on to its offspring. Thus sister workers who share paternity are unusually closely related to each other. Each received 100% its father's genes and 50% of its mother's genes so each is on average 75% related its sisters and only 50% related to the queen. It is thus beneficial for a worker to look after the queen and her colony in order to best ensure the survival of its genes. When an individual acts in the interests of others and not just itself it is known as altruism.
Interactions with other species
Diet
Oriental hornets capture other insects such as grasshoppers, flies, honey bees, and yellowjackets which they feed the colony's brood.[2] They will also collect other animal proteins for their young such as pieces of fresh or spoiled meat and fish.[8] The adults eat carbohydrates such as nectar, honeydew, and fruits.[8]
Conflict with bees
The best place for hornets to find a combination of animal proteins (bees or larvae) and carbohydrates (honey) are bee hives.[8] Oriental hornets have been known to cause serious damage to bee colonies.[8] They are the primary pest that attacks honey bee colonies in many countries.[10] In defense, Japanese honey bees have been shown to kill predatory hornets by surrounding them by forming a tight ball in which the temperature rises to lethal levels.[13] Cyprain honey bees (Apis mellifera cypria) have developed a slightly different method for killing their major predator. They form a tight, smothering ball around the attacking hornet and kill it by asphyxiation.[13]
Human importance
Stings
Vespa stings are very painful to humans. They have smooth stingers that can be used multiple times.[9] Humans can die from many stings suffered at once. Some people also suffer severe allergic reactions to stings.[9]
Disease transmission
Since they are scavengers, the hornets can also transmit some serious diseases. They transmit infectious microbes to fruits and other human foods.[9] They may also transmit diseases by attacking infected honey bee hives and then transmitting disease to healthy nests.[9] The hornets may also have harmful effects on plants and crops by transmitting fungi and bacteria from infected plants to healthy plants.[9]
Antibacterial effect of venom
In today’s society, microorganisms are developing resistance to drugs at a fast rate. Scientists are constantly interested in new substances that can fight against these multidrug- resistant microorganisms. Recently, interest has shifted towards the potential of animal venom serving as antimicrobials. This would allow attempts at treating infectious diseases. The venom of Vespa orientalis was tested for how well it could inhibit the growth of gram-positive bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus subtilis, and gram-negative bacteria, Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumonia. Results showed inhibition zones were clear surrounding the disks containing venom extract from the wasp. It was more effective in inhibiting growth of gram-positive bacteria. Specific peptides within the venom contribute to its antimicrobial property. This venom serves as a potential therapeutic agent.[14]
Solar energy harvesting
Most wasps are most active during the early morning. Vespa orientalis is unique in showing a peak of activity during the middle of the day.[7] Oriental hornets dig their nests underground by picking up soil in their mandibles, flying a short distance, dropping the soil, and returning to the nest to continue digging.[7] The hornet's digging is correlated with insolation (solar energy). The more insolation, the more active the hornet.[7] This daytime digging behavior of Vespa orientalis may be possible because of the ability of its cuticle to harvest solar energy.[7]
Cuticle
The cuticle of the Oriental hornet contains yellow pigment which protects the cuticle from harmful UV radiation from the sun.[7] The brown segments of the hornet's body contain melanin which serves a similar purpose. The brown cuticle is composed of approximately 30 layers, the thickness of which increases from interior to exterior.[7] The brown melanin pigment is found in these layers. The yellow cuticle is composed of 15 layers which contain yellow pigment. The yellow stripe contains xanthopterin in barrel-shaped granules.[7]
Electric Potential
Enzyme activity in the layer of yellow xanthopterin granules was demonstrated to be higher in hornets kept in dark environments and lower in those exposed to UV light.[7] Measuring the electric voltage between the hypocuticle and the exocuticle of the yellow stripe shows a negative electric potential at the hypocuticle with respect to the positive exocuticle.[7] If the yellow stripe is exposed to light, the potential difference between light and dark conditions increases. In dark conditions, the stripe decreases in electric potential.[7] Pterins have a role in photoreception and phototransduction of near-UV light to blue light and it is possible that pterins may play a role in photosynthesis.[7]
Research and experiments
Israeli Space Agency Investigation About Hornets
The Israeli Space Agency Investigation About Hornets[15] (ISAIAH) was a project from Tel-Aviv University initiated in 1984 to explore the effects of near-zero gravity on oriental hornets, their development, and their nest-building instincts. The experiments was funded by the Israel Space Agency with the goal of discovering ways to prevent astronauts from suffering headaches, nausea, and vomiting during the missions. The sample of 230 Oriental hornets, flight hardware, and measuring instruments were all packed onto the Space Shuttle Endeavour mission STS-47 in 1992.[15]
During the launch 202 hornets died as a result of a malfunction in the water system that caused an abnormal increase in humidity. The surviving hornets lost their sense of direction and, unlike the control unit hornets, were unable to climb on the walls or stay in clusters. Instead, they stayed motionless and apart from each other. Roughly 3 to 4 days upon returning to earth, the hornets started climbing on the walls again and building a nest. The surviving hornets lived for an average of 23 days instead of 43 like the control hornets.[16]
References
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