Dispersal patterns of an introduced wild bee, Megachile sculpturalis Smith, 1853 (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae) in European alpine countries

PLoS One. 2020 Jul 10;15(7):e0236042. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0236042. eCollection 2020.

Abstract

Biodiversity monitoring programs are the baseline of species abundancy studies, which in case of introduced species are especially critical. Megachile sculpturalis Smith, 1853 native to Eastern-Asia, constitutes the first ever recorded wild bee species accidently introduced in Europe. Since its first discovery in 2008, M. sculpturalis has been spreading across the continent. By initiating a citizen science monitoring program, we aimed to investigate the occurrence pattern of M. sculpturalis. Within only two years after starting the project, 111 new reports from Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Austria were recorded. Comparably to other European countries, the population progressed remarkably fast from year to year expanding its area geographically but also ecologically by increasing its altitudinal range. The distribution pattern indicates human assisted jump-dispersal travelling on the major traffic routes of central Europe.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animal Distribution*
  • Animals
  • Bees / physiology*
  • Citizen Science
  • Europe
  • Introduced Species*

Grants and funding

JL is recipient of a DOC Fellowship of the Austrian Academy of Sciences at the Institute of Integrative Nature Conservation Research at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences. The funder provided support in the form of salaries for authors [JL], but did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The specific roles of these authors are articulated in the ‘author contributions’ section.