Identification of giant hornet Vespa mandarinia queen sex pheromone components

The Vespidae is a diverse family of wasps and hornets that are formidable predators of insects, including social bees1Zhu G. Gutierrez Illan J. Looney C. Crowder D.W. Assessing the ecological niche and invasion potential of the Asian giant hornet.Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 2020; 117: 24646-24648Crossref PubMed Scopus (21) Google Scholar, and includes a number of invasive species2Beggs J.R. Brockerhoff E.G. Corley J.C. Kenis M. Masciocchi M. Muller F. Rome Q. Villemant C. Ecological effects and management of invasive alien Vespidae.BioControl. 2011; 56: 505-526Crossref Scopus (201) Google Scholar. Recently, the world's largest hornet, Vespa mandarinia Smith (Hymenoptera: Vespidae), which occurs naturally in the Indomalayan region, has been found in Canada and the United States2Beggs J.R. Brockerhoff E.G. Corley J.C. Kenis M. Masciocchi M. Muller F. Rome Q. Villemant C. Ecological effects and management of invasive alien Vespidae.BioControl. 2011; 56: 505-526Crossref Scopus (201) Google Scholar. Some simulations indicate that it could rapidly spread throughout Washington and Oregon in the western US, as well as some eastern parts of the country2Beggs J.R. Brockerhoff E.G. Corley J.C. Kenis M. Masciocchi M. Muller F. Rome Q. Villemant C. Ecological effects and management of invasive alien Vespidae.BioControl. 2011; 56: 505-526Crossref Scopus (201) Google Scholar,3Alaniz A.J. Carvajal M.A. Vergara P.M. Giants are coming? Predicting the potential spread and impacts of the giant Asian hornet (Vespa mandarinia, Hymenoptera: Vespidae) in the USA.Pest Manag. Sci. 2021; 77: 104-112Crossref PubMed Scopus (15) Google Scholar, threaten native bees and honeybees, and harm bee-pollinated crop production worth over $100 million annually3Alaniz A.J. Carvajal M.A. Vergara P.M. Giants are coming? Predicting the potential spread and impacts of the giant Asian hornet (Vespa mandarinia, Hymenoptera: Vespidae) in the USA.Pest Manag. Sci. 2021; 77: 104-112Crossref PubMed Scopus (15) Google Scholar. There is consequently an urgent need to learn more about V. mandarinia's reproductive biology and to develop trapping methods to locate its nests and to control its reproduction. We identified V. mandarinia queen-produced sex pheromone from the 5th and 6th intersegmental sternal glands of virgin queens. The major active compounds were hexanoic acid, octanoic acid, and decanoic acid. When placed in field traps, the synthetic compounds and a queen-equivalent mixture rapidly attracted hundreds of males but no females or other species.