Spread of the invasive yellow-legged hornet Vespa velutina (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) in Italy

Bertolino, Sandro; Lioy, Simone; Laurino, Daniela; Manino, Aulo; Porporato, Marco

doi:10.1007/s13355-016-0435-2

Cited by 64 publications

(68 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Population spread rate has been estimated in some countries and values are non-consistent, suggesting that spread rate could be different case-by-case, for example, depending on environmental and morphological characteristics of the invaded area. Robinet et al (2017) estimated a mean spread rate of the population of 78 km/year (range between 75-112 km/year) in France, Bertolino et al (2016) a mean spread rate of 18 km/year in Italy and Choi et al (2012) a diffusion of 10-20 km/year in South Korea. Sauvard et al (2018) tested the flying abilities of workers in laboratory conditions throughout flight mill experiments; they demonstrated that workers are able to fly on average from 10 km to 30 km per flight test.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Establishing surveillance areas for tackling the invasion of Vespa velutina in outbreaks and over the border of its expanding range

Lioy¹,

Manino²,

Porporato³

et al. 2019

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The yellow-legged hornet Vespavelutina is an invasive alien species in many areas of the world. In Europe, it is considered a species of Union concern and national authorities have to establish surveillance plans, early warning and rapid response systems or control plans. These strategies customarily require the assessment of the areas that could be colonised beyond outbreaks or expanding ranges, so as to establish efficient containment protocols. The hornet is spreading through a mix of natural diffusion and human-mediated transportation. Despite the latter dispersion mode is hardly predictable, natural diffusion could be modelled from nest data of consecutive years. The aim of this work is to develop a procedure to predict the spread of the yellow-legged hornet in the short term in order to increase the efficiency of control plans to restrain the diffusion of this species. We used data on the mean distances of colonial nests between years to evaluate the probability of yellow-legged hornet dispersal around the areas where the species is present. The distribution of nests in Italy was mainly explained by elevation (95% of nests located within 521 m a.s.l.) and distance from source sites (previous years’ colonies; 95% within 1.4–6.2 km). The diffusion models developed with these two variables forecast, with good accuracy, the spread of the species in the short term: 98–100% of nests were found within the predicted area of expansion. A similar approach can be applied in areas invaded by the yellow-legged hornet, in particular beyond new outbreaks and over the border of its expanding range, to implement strategies for its containment. The spatial application of the models allows the establishment of buffer areas where monitoring and control efforts can be allocated on the basis of the likelihood of the species spreading at progressively greater distances.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Establishing surveillance areas for tackling the invasion of Vespa velutina in outbreaks and over the border of its expanding range

Lioy¹,

Manino²,

Porporato³

et al. 2019

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“…As documented in Bertolino, Lioy, Laurino, Manino, and Porporato (2016), the area occupied by the these hornets in Italy increased from 205 km 2 in 2013 to 930 km 2 in 2015; the front line was at 55 km along the coast from the French border in 2015, with a linear spread of 18.3 ± 3.3 km/year. In few cases, the dispersion of the invasive insect was clearly human-mediated.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 83%

Recent upgrades of the harmonic radar for the tracking of the Asian yellow‐legged hornet

Milanesio

Saccani

Maggiora

et al. 2017

Ecology and Evolution

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The yellow‐legged Asian hornet is an invasive species of wasps, indigenous of the South‐East Asia but quickly spreading in Southern Europe. Because of its exponential diffusion and its serious threat to the local honey bee colonies and to humans as well, restraint measures are under investigation. Among them, the harmonic radar described in (Ecology and Evolution, 6, 2016 and 2170) already proved to be a quite effective way to follow the hornets to their nests; it is in fact capable of tracking the flying trajectory of these insects, once equipped with a small transponder, in their natural environment. The aforementioned harmonic radar was upgraded after a period of intense experimentation; the capture of the hornets was enhanced as well, and other improvements were adopted in the mounting procedure of the transponder. Thanks to these upgrades, the flying capabilities of the hornets were not reduced and a huge collection of data was recorded. The main upgrade to the radar was the adoption of the vertical polarization of the radiated field, with the consequent redesign and manufacturing of the antennas and the different mounting of the transceiver on the insect. The installation of the radar on a telescopic tower drastically improved the maneuverability of the system and the capability to follow the insects’ preferential flying directions. Eventually, the system was able to produce much more continuous traces with a clear indication of the most probable position of the nest. The maximum range of detection was also increased to 150 m.

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“…The Asian yellow-legged hornet, Vespa velutina, is an invasive hornet species accidentally introduced into Europe via container boat shipment followed by truck transport close to Agen (South West France) in or just before 2004 (Arca et al 2015). From its introduction site in South West France, it has spread through mainland and has now reached Spain (López et al 2011), Portugal (Grosso-Silva & Maia 2012, Germany (Witt 2015), Italy (Bertolino et al 2016), Mallorca (Leza et al 2018), and more recently Alderney and Jersey, and United Kingdom (Budge et al 2017, Kennedy et al 2018). The last invaded countries are Belgium, a nest being destroyed at ca.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An alarm pheromone in the venom gland of Vespa velutina: evidence revisited from the european invasive population

Thiéry¹,

Bonnard²,

Riquier³

et al. 2018

entomologia

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Alarm pheromones are major communication signals in animals and major semiochemicals in the colony organisation of social insects. We investigated the composition of venom in Vespa velutina, an invasive hornet species accidentally introduced into Europe a decade ago. Crushed venom glands were applied to seven wild V. velutina nests and induced aggressive responses of workers in all the colonies tested. Then, solvent extracts or headspace Solid Phase Micro Extraction (SPME) were analysed and quantified by gas chromatography coupled with either flame ionization detector or a mass spectrometer, and checked retention times to Kovats indices and Linear retention indices (LRI). We compared our results to those obtained in the same species from its native area in a previous study. Nonan-2-one and the 4, 8-dimethylnon-7-en-2-one were found in large amount in the venom gland. Five other molecules including the heptan-2-one, non-8-en-2-one, undecan-2-one and two unknown molecules were also found. Similar compounds were globally found, however, one unknown compound was present in our European population but absent in native area ones and should be identify. Although pheromones are thought to be species-specific, our results suggest that their composition may vary within species due to population history, thus questioning its value as a taxonomic tool. Although our results are preliminary, we also recommend carefully considering the origin of the Vespa velutina individuals chosen to develop pheromone-based methods (attractants or mating disruption) for pest management.

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Spread of the invasive yellow-legged hornet Vespa velutina (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) in Italy

Cited by 64 publications

References 22 publications

Establishing surveillance areas for tackling the invasion of Vespa velutina in outbreaks and over the border of its expanding range

Establishing surveillance areas for tackling the invasion of Vespa velutina in outbreaks and over the border of its expanding range

Recent upgrades of the harmonic radar for the tracking of the Asian yellow‐legged hornet

An alarm pheromone in the venom gland of Vespa velutina: evidence revisited from the european invasive population

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