Geographic potential of the world’s largest hornet,Vespa mandariniaSmith (Hymenoptera: Vespidae), worldwide and particularly in North America

• DOI: 10.1101/2020.08.11.246991
• Publication Date: 2020-08-13T04:55:16Z
• Authors: Claudia Nuñez-Pen...; Luis Osorio-Olvera; Victor H. Gonzalez; Marlon E. Cobos; Laura Jiménez; Devon A. DeRaad; Abdelghafar Alkishe; Rusby G. Contrera...; Angela Nava-Bolaños; Kaera Utsumi; Uzma Ashraf; Adeola Adeboje; A. Townsend Peterson; Jorge Soberón
• Keywords: 0106 biological sciences; 0301 basic medicine; 570; 03 medical and health sciences; Biogeography; 590; 14. Life underwater; 15. Life on land; 01 natural sciences

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