First report on the emergency dance of Apis cerana japonica, which induces odorous plant material collection in response to Vespa mandarinia japonica scouting

Previously, we observed several instances in which Apis cerana japonica performed dancing around the hive entrance and smeared plant materials there immediately after scouting of Vespa mandarinia japonica. In this study, we conducted a series of attack simulation experiments with three hornet species to investigate whether the hive entrance dance is a specific response to V. m. japonica scouting. We also tracked dancing bees and dance-follower bees to observe whether they perform hive entrance smearing. Only V. m. japonica scouting induced dancing, and we confirmed that dancing and dance-follower bees performed smearing behavior at the hive entrance. These results suggest that the hive entrance dance informs nestmates of a specific emergency and of the urgent need to collect odorous plant materials as a counter-attack strategy.