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

Figures & data

Figure 1. Materials (examples circled) applied by Japanese honey bees to the landing board in front of the entrance to their hive.

Table 1. List of organisms detected by DNA metabarcoding in materials collected from the spots in front of the entrance to a Japanese honey bee hive.

Target	Species	Common name	Number of reads	Alignment length (bp)	Query coverage (%)
All animals	Corvus macrorhynchos	Large-billed crow	2553	313	100.0
	Microscelis amaurotis	Brown-eared bulbul	509	313	100.0
	Abrolophus sp.	Mite	461	313	100.0
	Gekko japonicus	Schlegel’s Japanese gecko	426	313	100.0
	Psychodidae sp.	Moth fly	197	313	99.7
	Drosophila sp.	Fruit fly	172	313	100.0
Mammals	Homo sapiens	Human	1304	173	100.0
	Procyon lotor	Raccoon	1103	168	99.4
	Nyctereutes procyonoides	Raccoon dog	625	169	100.0
Birds	Hypsipetes sp.	Bulbul	14,725	395	98.0
	Corvus macrorhynchos	Large-billed crow	696	389	99.5
	Hypsipetes sp.	Bulbul	489	395	97.8
	Hypsipetes sp.	Bulbul	187	395	97.8
Arthropods	Psychoda alternata	Trickling filter fly	11,617	319	100.0
	Drosophila bizonata	Fruit fly	4857	318	100.0
Terrestrial plants	Oxalis sp.	Wood sorrel	6199	334	100.0
	Brassica sp.		5504	334	100.0
	Asteraceae sp.	Aster family	4581	334	100.0
	Brassica sp.		4440	334	100.0
	Asteraceae sp.	Aster family	2519	334	100.0
	Benincasa hispida	Wax gourd	2187	334	100.0
	Cucurbitaceae sp.	Gourd family	1254	338	100.0
	Dahlia sp.	Dahlia	691	334	100.0
	Portulaca sp.	Purslane	599	334	100.0
	Humulus sp.		475	334	100.0
	Paederia stenobotrya	Sewer vine	425	334	100.0
	Plumbago sp.		132	334	100.0
	Morella rubra	Chinese bayberry	106	334	100.0
	Solanum melongena	Eggplant	103	318	100.0

Unique primer sets were used for each target. Note that the number of reads is comparable only within the same target.