Origin and Potential Expansion of the Invasive Longan Lanternfly, Pyrops candelaria (Hemiptera: Fulgoridae) in Taiwan.

You-Sheng Lin,Jhih-Rong Liao,Chiun-Cheng Ko,Shiuh-Feng Shiao

doi:10.3390/biology10070678

Abstract

Simple SummaryThe longan lanternfly Pyrops candelaria (Linnaeus), which feeds on longan trees, has invaded the main island of Taiwan. Thus, this study aimed to (1) trace the origin of invasion, (2) predict habitat suitability and (3) study the risk of lanternfly spread into crop cultivation areas. We reconstructed the longan lanternfly phylogeny to compare haplotypes among different regions. In addition, we predicted the habitat suitability for the species based on MaxEnt and then matched it with longan and pomelo cultivation areas. Our results indicated that the Taiwanese populations of longan lanternfly might originate from the Kinmen Islands and the plain areas of Taiwan are considered to have high habitat suitability.The longan lanternfly Pyrops candelaria is a new invasive species on the main island of Taiwan. The introduction of an invasive species may negatively influence the native fauna, flora and environment. Thus, this study aimed to infer the invasion history, predict habitat suitability and potential expansion and assess the risk to crop cultivation areas in Taiwan. Genetic structures of P. candelaria from the main island of Taiwan and related regions were analyzed based on partial COI and ND2 sequences. Additionally, machine learning MaxEnt was utilized to study habitat suitability. The results suggested that the Taiwanese populations may originate from the Kinmen Islands and the plain areas of Taiwan are considered to have high habitat suitability. Furthermore, most of the cultivation areas of longan and pomelo crops showed high habitat suitability.

Highlights

Biological invasions may pose threats to native fauna and flora, the economy and even human health [1], constituting a global economic and ecological threat [2,3,4]
Phylogenetic inference using concatenated cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) and NADH dehydrogenase subunit2 (ND2) genes revealed that all samples from the main island of Taiwan formed the largest clade with 10 samples from Kinmen and one sample from Hong
Phylogenetic inference using concatenated COI and ND2 genes revealed that all samples from the main island of Taiwan formed the largest clade with 10 samples from Kinmen and one sample distribution areas of P. candelaria included most of the lowland to low-altitude mountainous from Hong Kong

Summary

Introduction

Biological invasions may pose threats to native fauna and flora, the economy and even human health [1], constituting a global economic and ecological threat [2,3,4]. Understanding the genetic structures of invasive species is helpful for effective management and quarantine [7,8,9]. 2 (ND2) genes have been used in studies of genetic structures (e.g., Tessaratoma papillosa (Drury) and Lycorma delicatula (White)) [7,8]. The maximum entropy method (MaxEnt), a machine learning approach, has been widely used to explore species niches by analyzing species-environment relationships using presence-only data and environmental variables [10]. As only presence data are required, this method has multiple applications, including determining suitable habitats for protected species [10], predicting the distribution of invasive species [11], studying the establishment of invasive natural enemies [12]

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