Predatory social wasps (Vespidae) are opportunistic, invasive and generalist foragers which employ distinct foraging strategies to meet the nutritional needs of adults and larvae. They are agile, visual predators that can hunt on the fly, scavenge on carcasses and collect tree sap, honeydew, nectar and sugars from rotting fruits. Their diverse foraging strategies make them an excellent model system to study cognition and context specific use of sensory information. Few studies have addressed visual associative learning and olfactory preferences of predatory social wasps in the context of flower-feeding, although nectar is one of their main carbohydrate sources. A deeper understanding of their sensory ecology and learning abilities in the flower foraging context is important, as they are invasive and major predators of honeybee colonies in many parts of the world. We investigated visual associative learning and olfactory preference in the Greater banded hornet Vespa tropica. We found that V. tropica foragers readily associate colour with sugar reward and exhibit colour generalisation. They also learn to associate shapes with sugar rewards. Our results suggest that colour learning and shape discrimination might play a role in the context of flower search in V. tropica. Finally, we show that V. tropica preferred honeybee hive-related odours over a generic floral odour, indicating that the preference for hive odours could potentially help hornets home in on bee colonies.

掠食性社会黄蜂 (Vespidae) 是机会主义、侵入性和多面手的觅食者，它们采用独特的觅食策略来满足成虫和幼虫的营养需求。它们是敏捷的视觉捕食者，可以在飞行中捕猎，以尸体为食，并从腐烂的水果中收集树液、蜜露、花蜜和糖分。它们多样化的觅食策略使它们成为研究感官信息的认知和上下文特定使用的绝佳模型系统。尽管花蜜是它们的主要碳水化合物来源之一，但很少有研究解决捕食性社会黄蜂在喂食情况下的视觉联想学习和嗅觉偏好。更深入地了解它们在花卉觅食环境中的感官生态和学习能力很重要，因为它们是世界许多地方的蜜蜂群落的入侵者和主要捕食者。我们调查了大带状大黄蜂的视觉联想学习和嗅觉偏好胡蜂热带。我们发现V. tropica觅食者很容易将颜色与糖奖励联系起来，并表现出颜色泛化。他们还学会将形状与糖奖励联系起来。我们的结果表明颜色学习和形状辨别可能在V. tropica的花卉搜索环境中发挥作用。最后，我们表明V. tropica比一般的花香更喜欢蜜蜂蜂巢相关的气味，这表明对蜂巢气味的偏好可能有助于大黄蜂在蜂群中安家。