The origin of materials deposited by Japanese honey bees at their hive entrances as a defense against giant hornets

Eastern honey bees (<i>Apis cerana</i> Fabricius, 1793) apply spots of materials derived from other organisms to the outside of their hive entrances as one of their defenses against giant hornets. In this study, we used DNA metabarcoding to identify the origin of such materials applied by Japanese honey bees (<i>Apis cerana japonica</i> Radoszkowski, 1877) and found them to be derived from mammals, birds, arthropods, and terrestrial plants. Our results show that this particular defensive behavior involves the use of a wider variety of taxa than previously known.

东方蜜蜂（*Apis cerana* Fabricius, 1793）会将源自其他生物的物质涂布于蜂巢入口外侧，以此作为抵御大型胡蜂的防御手段之一。本研究针对日本东方蜜蜂（*Apis cerana japonica* Radoszkowski, 1877）所涂布的此类物质，采用DNA元条形码技术（DNA metabarcoding）进行来源鉴定，结果发现其来源涵盖哺乳类、鸟类、节肢动物与陆生植物。本研究结果表明，这类特殊的防御行为所利用的生物类群多样性较此前已知范围更为广泛。