Brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB), native to Asia including China, is a major invasive horticultural and crop pest in North America and Europe, and now threatens the southern hemisphere. BMSB has not established in New Zealand although it is regularly intercepted at its borders. Relatively little is known about the impact of BMSB on kiwifruit, an important horticultural crop in New Zealand; at least in English language literature. Searches were conducted in the Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) platform using Chinese characters for BMSB (茶翅蝽) and kiwifruit (猕猴桃), and also in English, in international platforms. We identified 17 and eight publications, respectively, indicating that BMSB and yellow spotted stinkbug (YSSB) (麻皮蝽 and 黄斑蝽) are major pests of kiwifruit in China. Little information on BMSB or YSSB and their pest status in kiwifruit was found in English language searches in international platforms. Searching Chinese databases with Chinese characters in combination with searches in international databases is necessary to ensure comprehensive coverage for biosecurity risk assessment.

New Zealands increasing trade and tourism with Asia and especially China brings with it the need to understand the biosecurity risk to New Zealand from these countries This study compared the number of articles on two Chinese horticultural pests and two Chinese horticultural plant pathogens both of biosecurity relevance for New Zealand which were extracted using webbased searches conducted on two international and three Chinese databases There were up to 35 times more articles found in Chinese databases searched with Chinese characters than found in international databases searched with Latin script The quality of information from the articles in any of these databases was not examined Based on these results it would be prudent to explore further the information found in Chinese articles stored in Chinese databases to determine their relevance to New Zealands biosecurity system Searching Chinese databases with Chinese characters in combination with the more usual searches in international databases might ensure a more comprehensive coverage and could help to reduce the biosecurity risk to New Zealand in the future

Brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB) is a polyphagous pest originating from Asia but is now established in North America, Europe and recently South America. It has not established in New Zealand but is considered a signi cant biosecurity threat. Surprisingly, there is very little accessible information on its potential impact on kiwifruit, one of New Zealand’s most important horticulture crops. Articles in Chinese characters1,2,3 published in Chinese journals more than a decade ago demonstrate that BMSB is an important kiwifruit pest in China and, therefore, of concern to New Zealand’s kiwifruit industry. However, these articles were unknown to the broader BMSB research community until recently. This example reemphasises the importance of searching Chinese databases with Chinese characters, along with standard searches in international databases, to ensure a comprehensive understanding of biosecurity risks to New Zealand. Zhang F, Chen Z, Zhang S. 2000. The occurrence and control of Halyomorpha halys in kiwifruit orchards. Northwest Horticulture 2: 38. Guo X, Shi X. 2003. The biology and integrated management of important kiwifruit pests. China Fruits 1: 45-46. Feng H. 2007. The occurrence and control of pests in kiwifruit orchards. Northwest Horticulture 12: 22.

References to many other kiwifruit arthropod pests (and diseases) were found as part of a process of searching Chinese language literature to understand the impact of brown marmorated stink bug (Halyomorpha halys; BMSB) and spotted lantern fly (Lycorma delicatula; SLF) on kiwifruit (Actinidia chinensis) and A. deliciosa in China. Information on other kiwifruit pests was collated from over 20 Chinese language publications found in searches of the Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure platform using standard Chinese characters for BMSB, SLF and kiwifruit, and was ranked according to: (1) the number of publications they were mentioned in; and (2) the type of words used to describe their impact. In addition to BMSB and SLF, approximately 50 kiwifruit pests were identified from this process, including a number of species that were unknown to the New Zealand kiwifruit biosecurity community and which may pose a threat to kiwifruit production if they established in New Zealand. This work reinforces the need for searching Chinese databases with Chinese characters in combination with searches in international databases, to ensure comprehensive coverage for biosecurity risk assessment.

Background: Globally, China and the USA are thought to present the greatest biosecurity threat from invasive species given the invasive species they already contain and their trade patterns. A proportion of Chinese scientific publications are published in Chinese language journals in Chinese characters, thus, they are not easily available to the international biosecurity community. Information in these journals may be important for invasive species biosecurity risk assessment. Methods: To assess the need for retrieving information from non-international databases, such as Chinese databases, we compared quantitative and qualitative information on the presence and distribution of five invasive pest thrips species (Frankliniella schultzei, Selenothrips rubrocinctus, Scirtothrips dorsalis, Thrips hawaiiensis, and Thrips palmi) in China, retrieved from an international English language database (Web of Science/WOS) and a Chinese language database (Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure/CNKI). Such information is necessary for climate matching models which are used regularly for pest risk assessment. Results: Few publications on Frankliniella schultzei were found in either database. For the other species, more publications were sourced from CNKI than WOS. More publications on the provincial distribution of S. rubrocinctus and S. dorsalis in China were found in CNKI than the Crop Protection Compendium (CPC); the two sources had equivalent publications on T. palmi and T. hawaiiensis. The combined provincial distributional data from WOS, CNKI and CPC for the four species provided distribution records at a higher latitude than a recently published checklist—information that is important for optimised climate matching. Additionally, CNKI provided sub-provincial distributional data not available in CPC that will enable a more refined approach for climate matching. Data on the relative proportion of publications found in different databases were constant over time. Conclusions: This study, focusing on pest distributional data, illustrates the importance of searching in Chinese databases in combination with standard searches in international databases, to gain a comprehensive understanding of invasive species for biosecurity risk assessment.