The Oriental Hornet (Vespa orientalis L.): a Threat to the Americas?

WERENKRAUT, VICTORIA; ARBETMAN, MARINA PAULA; FERGNANI, PAULA NILDA

NEOTROPICAL ENTOMOLOGY

ENTOMOLOGICAL SOC BRASIL

Lugar: BRASIL; Año: 2022 vol. 51 p. 330 - 338

1519-566X

Invasivealien species generate adverse ecological, economic and social impacts in theinvaded area. This is particularly alarming as the establishment of alienspecies shows no sign of saturation worldwide.Among invasive alien species, social wasps of theVespidae family are well known to negatively impact the biodiversity and economyin the invaded areas. In 2020 an established population of the OrientalHornet (Vespa orientalis L.) was detected in central Chile.This finding represents the first successful establishment of an insect of thegenus Vespa in South America andrises an alarm about its potential spread in the Americas. Here, we performedan ecological niche modelling approach using Global Biodiversity InformationFacility (GBIF) and literature occurrences for V. orientalis and a set of environmental variables, to identify thesuitable areas for the species outside its native range. The highest suitability values were predicted mostly in warmtemperate regions and some arid regions of the world, with Humid subtropical,Mediterranean, Semi-arid or Desert climates. In the Americas we identified fourmain regions as moderately or highly suitablefor the Oriental hornet: the Gulf of Mexico and some areas in westernCalifornia in the United States, central west Chile, and the north-westernregion of Argentina. When we complemented GBIF occurrences with datafrom the literature, the potential areas of invasions became broader. Based on our results, we recommend theimplementation of early warning monitoring schemesincluding citizen science initiatives to prevent the invasion of the OrientalHornet.