Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Group-living animals commonly use social information to locate and exploit resources. In many insects, fish, birds and mammals, this leads to collective foraging decisions by which animals aggregate on a single food source despite several alternatives of different or equal qualities. Here, we report collective foraging decisions in a widespread invasive hornet (Vespa velutina nigrithorax) that predates on bees and consume plant nectar. When given a choice between 2 identical sugar solutions (in feeders or in traps), wild hornets distributed asymmetrically between the 2 options, and this was more frequent as the number of hornets increased. Priming one of the food sources with dead hornets predictably biased the aggregation toward this particular food source, irrespective of whether the baits were conspecifics or hornets from a different species. Inter-attraction in yellow-legged hornets is thus passive and non-specific, possibly mediated by visual and/or chemical cues displayed by dead hornets. Social foraging may provide important benefits to hornets invading new territories and bring new perspectives for population control.
Source: Behavioral Ecology
Institutions: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier, Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l'Environnement, Santé et Agroécologie du Vignoble, Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition Animale, Université de Toulouse, Centre de Biologie Intégrative de Toulouse
Language: English
Subfield: Insect Science
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,906
OpenAlex ID: W4416442835