Geographic potential of the world's largest hornet, Vespa mandarinia Smith (Hymenoptera: Vespidae), worldwide and particularly in North America.

Claudia Nuñez-Penichet,Rusby G Contreras-Díaz,Devon A Deraad,A Townsend Peterson,Marlon E Cobos,Angela Nava-Bolaños,Victor H Gonzalez,Luis Osorio-Olvera,Uzma Ashraf,Laura Jiménez,Abdelghafar Alkishe,Kaera Utsumi,Adeola Adeboje,Jorge Soberon

doi:10.7717/peerj.10690

Claudia Nuñez-Penichet, Rusby G Contreras-Díaz + Show 12 more

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https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.10690

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Abstract

The Asian giant hornet (AGH, Vespa mandarinia) is the world’s largest hornet, occurring naturally in the Indomalayan region, where it is a voracious predator of pollinating insects including honey bees. In September 2019, a nest of Asian giant hornets was detected outside of Vancouver, British Columbia; multiple individuals were detected in British Columbia and Washington state in 2020; and another nest was found and eradicated in Washington state in November 2020, indicating that the AGH may have successfully wintered in North America. Because hornets tend to spread rapidly and become pests, reliable estimates of the potential invasive range of V. mandarinia in North America are needed to assess likely human and economic impacts, and to guide future eradication attempts. Here, we assess climatic suitability for AGH in North America, and suggest that, without control, this species could establish populations across the Pacific Northwest and much of eastern North America. Predicted suitable areas for AGH in North America overlap broadly with areas where honey production is highest, as well as with species-rich areas for native bumble bees and stingless bees of the genus Melipona in Mexico, highlighting the economic and environmental necessity of controlling this nascent invasion.

Highlights

Invasive species represent major threats to biodiversity, as they can alter ecosystem processes and functions (Pyšek & Richardson, 2010; Vilà et al, 2011), and often contribute to the decline of imperiled species (e.g., Wilcove et al, 1998; Dueñas et al, 2018)
Even in the midst of the global uncertainty and socio-economic distress resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, the recent detection of the Asian Giant Hornet (AGH, Vespa mandarinia Smith, Hymenoptera: Vespidae), in North America (Bérubé, 2020; Wilson et al, 2020), received significant public attention
The patterns of suitability that we found in North America across multiple input data processing schemes are broadly concurrent with the results obtained by Zhu et al (2020) and Alaniz, Carvajal & Vergara (2020) (Fig. 6), who used an ensemble modeling approach for the potential invasion of AGH

Summary

Introduction

Invasive species represent major threats to biodiversity, as they can alter ecosystem processes and functions (Pyšek & Richardson, 2010; Vilà et al, 2011), and often contribute to the decline of imperiled species (e.g., Wilcove et al, 1998; Dueñas et al, 2018). Even in the midst of the global uncertainty and socio-economic distress resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, the recent detection of the Asian Giant Hornet (AGH, Vespa mandarinia Smith, Hymenoptera: Vespidae), in North America (Bérubé, 2020; Wilson et al, 2020), received significant public attention This social insect is the world’s largest hornet (2.5–4.5 cm body length), and occurs naturally across Asia, including in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Taiwan, and Japan, at elevations ranging between 850 and 1,900 m (Matsuura & Sakagami, 1973; Archer, 2008; Smith-Pardo, Carpenter & Kimsey, 2020). Attacks on honey bee hives occur late in the development of the hornet colony and prior to the emergence of reproductive individuals (males and new queens), the timing of which depends on location (e.g., Matsuura & Sakagami, 1973; Matsuura, 1988; Archer, 2008)

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