Bee-hawking by the wasp, Vespa velutina, on the honeybees Apis ceranaand A. mellifera

The vespine wasps, Vespa velutina, specialise in hawking honeybee foragers returning to their nests. We studied their behaviour in China using native Apis ceranaand introduced A. melliferacolonies. When the wasps are hawking, A. ceranarecruits threefold more guard bees to stave off predation than A. mellifera. The former also utilises wing shimmering as a visual pattern disruption mechanism, which is not shown by A. mellifera. A. ceranaforagers halve the time of normal flight needed to dart into the nest entrance, while A. melliferaactually slows down in sashaying flight manoeuvres. V. velutinapreferentially hawks A. melliferaforagers when both A. melliferaand A. ceranaoccur in the same apiary. The pace of wasp-hawking was highest in mid-summer but the frequency of hawking wasps was three times higher at A. melliferacolonies than at the A. ceranacolonies. The wasps were taking A. melliferaforagers at a frequency eightfold greater than A. ceranaforagers. The final hawking success rates of the wasps were about three times higher for A. melliferaforagers than for A. cerana. The relative success of native A. ceranaover European A. melliferain thwarting predation by the wasp V. velutinais interpreted as the result of co-evolution between the Asian wasp and honeybee, respectively.