The invasion, provenance and diversity of Vespa velutina Lepeletier (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) in Great Britain

Abstract

The yellow-legged or Asian hornet (Vespa velutina colour form nigrithorax) was introduced into France from China over a decade ago. Vespa velutina has since spread rapidly across Europe, facilitated by suitable climatic conditions and the ability of a single nest to disperse many mated queens over a large area. Yellow-legged hornets are a major concern because of the potential impact they have on populations of many beneficial pollinators, most notably the western honey bee (Apis mellifera), which shows no effective defensive behaviours against this exotic predator. Here, we present the first report of this species in Great Britain. Actively foraging hornets were detected at two locations, the first around a single nest in Gloucestershire, and the second a single hornet trapped 54 km away in Somerset. The foraging activity observed in Gloucestershire was largely restricted to within 700 m of a single nest, suggesting highly localised movements. Genetic analyses of individuals from the Gloucestershire nest and the single hornet from Somerset suggest that these incursions represent an expansion of the European population, rather than a second incursion from Asia. The founding queen of the Gloucestershire nest mated with a single male, suggesting that sexual reproduction may have occurred in an area of low nest density. Whilst the nest contained diploid adult males, haploid ‘true’ males were only present at the egg stage, indicating that the nest was detected and removed before the production of queens. Members of the public reported additional dead hornets associated with camping equipment recently returned from France and imported timber products, highlighting possible pathways of incursion. The utility of microsatellites to inform surveillance during an incursion and the challenge of achieving eradication of this damaging pest are discussed.

The northernmost record of the Asian hornet Vespa velutina nigrithorax (Hymenoptera, Vespidae)

“…After initiating a monitoring campaign in 2006, the origin of the invasion was confirmed; a nest of the species was transported with pottery from eastern China (Villemant et al 2006, Arca et al 2015. Since then the species has quickly spread throughout much of France (Rortais et al 2010, Monceau et al 2014, but also parts of Spain (López et al 2011), Portugal (Grosso-Silva and Maia 2012), Belgium (Bruneau 2011), Italy (Demichelis et al 2012, Bertolino et al 2016, the Netherlands (Smit et al 2018, Slikboer andZeegers 2019), Great Britain (Budge et al 2017) and south western parts of Germany (Witt 2015, Verhaagh et al 2018; newest and most northern record in Germany from Hessen in 2019, hessenschau.de) (see Rome and Villemant 2019 for an updated map). The species has been shown to be a fast invader spreading with an invasion speed of around 78 km/year in France (Robinet et al 2017), but higher distances may be covered with means of anthropogenic accidental transportation (Robinet et al 2018).…”

Anaphylaxis to Vespa velutina nigrithorax: Pattern of Sensitization for an Emerging Problem in Western Countries

“…Other parts of the world that show high climatic suitability for this species may also be potentially threatened by VVN since the scenario of introduction through international trade could happen again [7]. This prediction is now a reality since VVN has spread into Spain (particular in the north and northwestern areas, information available at http://websgis.cesga.es/velutina/), Portugal, Italy, and the UK [4,9,10]. In Galicia, a region in the northwest of Spain, more than 47394 nests have been identified and 24196 retrieved and destroyed in 2018 (compared to 769 in 2014) (http://mediorural.xuntµa.gal/es/areas/ganaderia/apicultura/vespa_velutina/).…”

The economic cost of control of the invasive yellow-legged Asian hornet

“…In France, V. velutina nigrithorax was first observed in south-western France in 2004 (Haxaire et al 2006) after its accidental introduction from China (Arca et al 2015). It spread rapidly, colonising most of France at an approximate rate of 60-80 km per year (Rome et al 2015;Robinet et al 2016) and progressively invading other European countries: Spain in 2010 (López et al 2011), Portugal (Grosso-Silva and Maia 2012) and Belgium (Rome et al 2013) in 2011, Italy in 2012 (Demichelis et al 2014), Germany in 2014 (Witt 2015) and, finally, the UK where it was first recorded on 20 Sept 2016 (Budge et al 2017). The rapid spread of the species in France and Europe is not necessarily a consequence of human-mediated dispersal, indicating that the species can rapidly spread on its own (Robinet et al 2016), although human-mediated dispersal is not uncommon (Bertolino et al 2016).…”