Comparative morphological analysis of yellow-legged hornet (Vespa velutina nigrithorax) and European hornet (Vespa crabro) based on modern imaging techniques

Tamás Sipos^1*Balázs Kolics²Éva Kolics-Horváth²Tamás Donkó³Ádám Csóka³Kristóf Kozma-Bognár⁴András Kovács⁵Katalin Somfalvi-Tóth¹Sándor Keszthelyi¹

• ¹Department of Agronomy, Hungarian University of Agricultural and Life Sciences, Gödöllő, Hungary
• ²Institute of Genetics and Biotechnology, Festetics Bioinnovation Group, Hungarian University of Agricultural and Life Sciences, Gödöllő, Hungary
• ³Medicopus Nonprofit Ltd., Kaposvár, Hungary
• ⁴Festetics Doctoral School, Hungarian University of Agricultural and Life Sciences, Gödöllő, Hungary
• ⁵Department of Material Science and Chemical Engineering, University of Pannonia, Veszprém, Hungary

The yellow-legged hornet (Vespa velutina nigrithorax Lepeletier, 1836) and the European hornet (Vespa crabro L., 1758) are two social generalist predator wasps that have successfully expanded beyond their native ranges, raising ecological concerns in newly colonized regions. This study presents a comparative analysis of the two species based on morphometric morphological parameters derived from digital microscopy and micro-CT imaging. Species were collected from the natural habitats in Hungary and examined in order to assess differences in body size, colouriszation, and flight-related morphology. Our results demonstrate pointed out that the colour analyses revealed significantly darker colouration in V. v. nigrithorax. Morphological measurements confirmed that V. crabro is generally larger and more robust in body size, while V. v. nigrithorax posesses relatively longer legs and a greater wing surface area proportional to body mass, traits associated with enhanced aerial manoeuvrabilitymaneuverability and hovering ability. A linear model based on fourteen 14 flightrelated coefficients revealed that V. v. nigrithorax outperformed V. crabro in most flight-related traits, eg. speed, manoeuvrabilitymaneuverability, balancing ability, hovering and carrying capacity. Correlation analyses supported these findings, showing stronger associations among wing parameters in V. v. nigrithorax and more uniform body-thorax interaction, more robust body composition structure in V. crabro. These results suggest argue that V. v. nigrithorax's better flight performance underlies its effective bee-hawking behaviour and competitive dominance in overlapping habitats which they cooccur. The study highlights how morphological adaptations contribute to predatory success and invasion potential. Our findings also confirm that in the absence of natural enemies, an adventive predator can exhibit significant ecological advantages in competitive interactions, certainly in the initial success of invasive species.