Dietary Niche and Gut Microbiota in Four Sympatric Vespa Hornet Species

A dataset from figshare by Caojinge Li, last updated in June 2026, combines mitochondrial COI phylogenetics, multi-locus metabarcoding dietary profiling, and 16S rRNA-based gut microbiota characterization. It covers four sympatric Vespa species (V. tropica, V. basalis, V. velutina, V. bicolor) to investigate links between host phylogeny, diet, and microbial communities. The dataset is 72.5 KB in size and is licensed under CC-BY-4.0.

Use Cases

• Analyzing correlations between host phylogeny and gut microbial community composition based on the described clade structure.
• Investigating dietary niche partitioning and prey specialization among sympatric hornet species using metabarcoding data.
• Predicting microbial functional profiles (e.g., secondary metabolite biosynthesis vs. carbohydrate metabolism) from described dietary niches.
• Studying coexistence strategies in sympatric species based on described fine-scale dietary preferences.

Strengths

• Integrates three distinct data types: phylogenetics, dietary metabarcoding, and 16S rRNA microbiota characterization.
• Focuses on four specific, sympatric Vespa species, enabling comparative analysis.
• Includes functional predictions for gut microbiota linked to described dietary niches.

Limitations

• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The authors note the findings require further validation with larger sample sizes.

Provenance

Source

figshare, author Caojinge Li.

Collection Method

Combined mitochondrial COI phylogenetics, multi-locus metabarcoding (COI/trnL-P6) dietary profiling, and 16S rRNA-based gut microbiota characterization.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-02 05:42:01; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Likely a sympatric region for the four Vespa species, though specific location is not stated.