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Video Q&A ViewAttendees 1

Systematics, Evolution, and Biodiversity

10-Minute Paper

SysEB: Phylogenetics On-Demand Presentations

Asian giant hornet (Vespa mandarinia) in North America: Population genetics and potential origins

On-Demand
On-Demand

    Presenting Author(s)

  • Todd M. Gilligan

    Biological Scientist
    USDA-APHIS
    Fort Collins, Colorado

    • Co-Author(s)

  • TW

    Telissa Wilson

    Pest Biologist
    Washington State Department of Agriculture
    Olympia, Washington

  • Chris Looney

    Entomologist
    Washington State Department of Agriculture
    Olympia, Washington

  • AT

    Alicia Timm

    Research Scientist
    Colorado State University
    Fort Collins, Colorado

  • AS

    Allan H. Smith-Pardo

    Biological Scientist
    USDA-APHIS
    Sacramento, California

  • BH

    Brock Harpur

    Assistant Professor
    Purdue University
    West Lafayette, Indiana

  • LT

    Luke Tembrock

    Research Scientist
    Colorado State University
    Fort Collins, Colorado

The Asian giant hornet, Vespa mandarinia, was first discovered in North America in the area of Nanaimo, Vancouver Island, where a nest was eradicated in 2019. Subsequent discoveries were made in the northwestern corner of Washington (Whatcom County) and southwestern British Columbia (Langley/Abbotsford), including several nests that were located and eradicated near Blaine, Washington in 2020 and 2021. Initial analysis of the mitochondrial DNA of hornets from Nanaimo and Washington determined that they originated from two different maternal lineages, suggesting different origins and separate introductions (Wilson et al. 2020). Here we present additional mtDNA data from V. mandarinia collected throughout its native and introduced ranges to further support this hypothesis. An additional V. mandarinia male discovered in Washington in 2021 likely has a different origin from the previous introductions. Although the various subspecies of V. mandarinia, some of which appear different in coloration, were synonymized by Carpenter and Kojima (1997), fixed SNPs indicate some population-level structuring that may correlate with phenotype.