A case of silent invasion: Citizen science confirms the presence of Harmonia axyridis (Coleoptera, Coccinellidae) in Central America

PLoS One. 2019 Jul 18;14(7):e0220082. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0220082. eCollection 2019.

Abstract

Harmonia axyridis (Coleoptera, Coccinellidae) is a globally invasive ladybird. It has been intentionally introduced in many countries as a biological control agent, whereas it has been unintentionally released in many others. Climatic factors are important in limiting the spread of H. axyridis. For example, very few records are known from tropical or desert regions. Currently, no published reports are known from Central America. Here, we report H. axyridis from Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, and Puerto Rico. Specimens were either observed by the authors, discovered in dried insect collections, or retrieved from searching through online photographs available from the citizen science project iNaturalist and the photo-sharing website Flickr. These new records and the wide distribution of H. axyridis in Latin America suggest several invasion events, which have gone unnoticed until now. We stress the need for further, large-scale monitoring and show the advantage of citizen science to assess the presence of invasive alien species.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Central America
  • Citizen Science
  • Coleoptera*
  • Geography
  • Introduced Species*

Grants and funding

This work was funded through the Torrey Botanical Society (2015 Graduate Student Research Fellowship), Georgia Entomological society (2015 PhD Scholarship), and Harvard University David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies (2015 Summer Research Travel Grant) to DH. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.