When the guard honey bees, Apis mellifera L., form a clump at the hive entrance or on the flight board, the oriental hornet, Vespa orientails L., either creeps toward the clump or hovers over it in order to take a bee. Once the hornet creeps, only few bees facing the hornet become alert, rock their heads and antennae, open their wings, and take a posture of defense. The rest of the clump stays listless without any signal of concern. However, the clump stays dense and the defending bees do not detach themselves neither from the rest of the clump nor from each other. For this reason, it is very difficult for the hornet to grab a bee unless the latter makes a “mistake” by detaching herself from other adjacent bees. If the hornet grabs such a bee, the other defending bees will not attack the hornet to free that bee even when the latter is one centimeter from the others. The defending bees can capture the hornet only when the latter grabs one of them which stands very close to the others. The hornet seems very “aware” of such a situation; hence she seldom becomes a captive. On the other hand, hovering over the clump makes it easier for the hornet to grab a bee. The hovering puts all the clump, rather than part of it, on alert. If the hornet is persistent, which is not often the case, then the clump will no longer be dense. The bees will panicly disperse all over the flight board; hence the hornet can find a detached bee and grabs it easily. The hornet also waits on wing in front of the hive to capture an outgoing or incoming flying bee but the latter usually maneuver to escape. Also, foraging bees reduce their activity during main hours of hornet presence. Among the main factors reducing the hornet impact are the continuous chasing of hornets to each other and the non-persistent attempts of the hornets when they attack bee clumps.
Some methods recommended abroad to control the oriental hornet, Vespa orientalis L., attacking the honey bee, Apis mellifera L., colonies were tested, with some modifications, for the first time under the Iraqi conditions. One of these methods was carried out by covering the hive entrance with a piece of queen excluder to prevent the hornet from entering the hive. Also, the position of hive stand was reversed to deprive the hornet from using the flight board as a stage for waiting and creeping toward the defending bees. The second method was carried out by fixing a cardboard cone as a bee passage at the hive entrance to hinder the entry of the hornet into the hive. Both of these methods were found to be unsuccessful to
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This study was carried out in the bee laboratory in the Faculty of Agriculture –University of Kufa in September 2021 to evaluate some protein sources and hive products against the oriental hornet Vespa orientalis Linnaeus 1771 (Hymenoptera: Vespidae). The food sources included: beef meat, gut fish, beef lung, honeybee, wax, propolis, pollen, bee worker, and water, in addition to control which was an empty petri dish. The number of visits and their duration were calculated. The results showed that the wasps preferred bee honey and wax significantly higher than the rest of the stimuli.
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Fear, harvesting, hunting cooperation, and antipredator behavior are all important subjects in ecology. As a result, a modified Leslie-Gower prey-predator model containing these biological aspects is mathematically constructed, when the predation processes are described using the Beddington-DeAngelis type of functional response. The solution's positivity and boundedness are studied. The qualitative characteristics of the model are explored, including stability, persistence, and bifurcation analysis. To verify the gained theoretical findings and comprehend the consequences of modifying the system's parameters on their dynamical behavior, a detailed numerical investigation is carried out using MATLAB and Mathematica. It is discovered that the
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The mathematical construction of an ecological model with a prey-predator relationship was done. It presumed that the prey consisted of a stage structure of juveniles and adults. While the adult prey species had the power to fight off the predator, the predator, and juvenile prey worked together to hunt them. Additionally, the effect of the harvest was considered on the prey. All the solution’s properties were discussed. All potential equilibrium points' local stability was tested. The prerequisites for persistence were established. Global stability was investigated using Lyapunov methods. It was found that the system underwent a saddle-node bifurcation near the coexistence equilibrium point while exhibiting a transcritical bifurcation
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The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of Royal jelly RJ on morphology and motility of mice sperms. Sperms were collected from the cauda region of the epididymis of each 10 mice from the treatment and control groups. Direct activation techniques and evaluation of sperm morphology were carried out. Dhino microscope was used for sperm measurement. The inspection was carried out in Salamatic laboratory for pathological analysis in 2015.The result revealed that all of the sperm function parameters registered significant activation in the treatment group. There was a significant increase in both the percentage of the sperm motility grade A and the progressive motility (A+B) of the treatment gr
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