Aim

The Hemiptera is the fifth-largest insect order but comprises more established non-native insect species than any other insect order. This over-representation may result from high propagule pressure or from high species invasiveness. Here, we assess the reasons for over-representation in this group by analyzing geographical, temporal and taxonomic variation in numbers of historical invasions.

Location

Global Method We assembled lists of historical Hemiptera invasions in 12 world regions, countries or islands (Australia, Chile, Europe, New Zealand, North America, South Africa, South Korea, Japan, and the Galapagos, Hawaiian, Okinawa, and Ogasawara Islands) and border interception data from 9 countries (Australia, Canada, European Union, United Kingdom, Hawaii, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, USA mainland, South Africa). Using these data, we identified hemipteran superfamilies that are historically over-represented among established non-native species, and superfamilies that are over-represented among arrivals (proxied by interceptions). We also compared temporal patterns of establishments among hemipteran suborders and among regions.

Results

Across all regions, patterns of over- and under-representation were similar. The Aphidoidea, Coccoidea, Aleyrodoidea, Cimicoidea and Phylloxeroida were over-represented among non-native species. These same superfamilies were not consistently over-represented among intercepted species indicating that propagule pressure does not completely explain the tendency of some Hemiptera to be over-represented among invasions. Asexual reproduction is common in nearly all over-represented superfamilies and this trait may be key to explaining the exceptional invasion success of these superfamilies. Geographical and temporal patterns of historical numbers of species established per decade mirror trends of naturalization of non-native plants.

Conclusions

We conclude that both propagule pressure and species invasiveness traits are drivers of the exceptional invasion success of the Sternorrhyncha suborder and Hemiptera in general. Most Hemiptera are plant-feeding; we conclude that non-native plant invasions provide ecological niches for non-native Hemiptera and play a role in driving their invasions worldwide.

These data list individual non-native Hemiptera species established in 12 regions around the globe: Australia, Chile, Europe (including its major islands and the European part of Russia), the Galapagos Archipelago, the Hawaiian Archipelago,  Japan (excluding outlying islands), New Zealand, Okinawa (Nansei Islands), North America (Canada, continental USA), the Ogasawara Islands (also known as Bonin Islands, Japan), South Africa, and South Korea. Family, superfamily and the year of initial discovery in each region where it is present are included for records when these data are available.

This dataset was assembled from various sources by an interdisciplinary scientific working group. Most of the records here are also included in Turner, R., Blake, R., & Liebhold, A. M. (2021). International Non-native Insect Establishment Data (0.1) [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5245302. 

Data have been cleaned of most typographic and taxonomic errors using the code in the R package insectcleanr: Initial release (DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.4555787), which is based on the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) taxonomic backbone (GBIF Secretariat (2021). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2022-02-09, i.e. the https://doi.org/10.15468/43g7-9874 backbone).