| Title: | Poison and alarm: the Asian hornet Vespa velutina uses sting venom volatiles as an alarm pheromone |
| Author(s): | Cheng YN; Wen P; Dong SH; Tan K; Nieh JC; |
| Address: | "Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, Yunnan Province 650223, China. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China. Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, Yunnan Province 650223, China kentan@xtbg.ac.cn wenping@xtbg.ac.cn. Eastern Bee Research Institute, Yunnan Agricultural University, Kunming 650201, China. Division of Biological Sciences, Section of Ecology, Behavior and Evolution, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA" |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 1477-9145 (Electronic) 0022-0949 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "In colonial organisms, alarm pheromones can provide a key fitness advantage by enhancing colony defence and warning of danger. Learning which species use alarm pheromone and the key compounds involved therefore enhances our understanding of how this important signal has evolved. However, our knowledge of alarm pheromones is more limited in the social wasps and hornets compared with the social bees and ants. Vespa velutina is an economically important and widespread hornet predator that attacks honey bees and humans. This species is native to Asia and has now invaded Europe. Despite growing interest in V. velutina, it was unknown whether it possessed an alarm pheromone. We show that these hornets use sting venom as an alarm pheromone. Sting venom volatiles were strongly attractive to hornet workers and triggered attacks. Two major venom fractions, consisting of monoketones and diketones, also elicited attack. We used gas chromatography coupled to electroantennographic detection (GC-EAD) to isolate 13 known and 3 unknown aliphatic ketones and alcohols in venom that elicited conspicuous hornet antennal activity. Two of the unknown compounds may be an undecen-2-one and an undecene-2,10-dinone. Three major compounds (heptan-2-one, nonan-2-one and undecan-2-one) triggered attacks, but only nonan-2-one did so at biologically relevant levels (10 hornet equivalents). Nonan-2-one thus deserves particular attention. However, the key alarm releasers for V. velutina remain to be identified. Such identification will help to illuminate the evolution and function of alarm compounds in hornets" |
| Keywords: | Aggression Animals Bees Bites and Stings/etiology/metabolism Humans Ketones/analysis/*metabolism Pheromones/chemistry/*metabolism Poisons/analysis/metabolism Predatory Behavior Venoms/analysis/*metabolism Volatile Organic Compounds/analysis/metabolism Was; |
| Notes: | "MedlineCheng, Ya-Nan Wen, Ping Dong, Shi-Hao Tan, Ken Nieh, James C eng Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't England 2016/12/08 J Exp Biol. 2017 Feb 15; 220(Pt 4):645-651. doi: 10.1242/jeb.148783. Epub 2016 Dec 6" |
