Geographic potential of the world’s largest hornet, Vespa mandarinia Smith (Hymenoptera: Vespidae), worldwide and particularly in North America

The Asian giant hornet (AGH, Vespa mandarinia) is the world’s largest hornet, occurring naturally in the Indomalayan region, where it is a voracious predator of pollinating insects including honey bees. In September 2019, a nest of Asian giant hornets was detected outside of Vancouver, British Columbia; multiple individuals were detected in British Columbia and Washington state in 2020; and another nest was found and eradicated in Washington state in November 2020, indicating that the AGH may have successfully wintered in North America. Because hornets tend to spread rapidly and become pests, reliable estimates of the potential invasive range of V. mandarinia in North America are needed to assess likely human and economic impacts, and to guide future eradication attempts. Here, we assess climatic suitability for AGH in North America, and suggest that, without control, this species could establish populations across the Pacific Northwest and much of eastern North America. Predicted suitable areas for AGH in North America overlap broadly with areas where honey production is highest, as well as with species-rich areas for native bumble bees and stingless bees of the genus Melipona in Mexico, highlighting the economic and environmental necessity of controlling this nascent invasion

Well-intentioned initiatives hinder understanding biodiversity conservation: Cloaked iNaturalist information for threatened species

To protect threatened species, iNaturalist, one of the most important repositories of geographic information on species´ geographic distributions, deliberately adds uncertainty to otherwise precise occurrence records of threatened species. This “clouded” or “cloaked” information is shared with other biodiversity repositories, such as the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). Although a mechanism exists by which users can obtain unbiased information, it requires the user to ask each data owner for the exact location of the record, which is difficult as many data providers may have participated in assembling the currently available data. To test for effects of adding uncertainty in estimation of the ecological niche and the potential distribution, we modeled the climatic requirements of three amphibian species using five sets of records: (i) a set of records at full accuracy and precision, and (ii) the same records but with 25 %, 50 %, 75 % and 100 % of biased occurrences induced by applying the iNaturalist protocol for introducing biases into biodiversity records. The three species present contrasting distribution sizes (from micro-endemic to widely distributed in the Sierras Pampeanas Centrales in Argentina). By employing ecological niche models, we showed that inducing bias generates misleading estimates of geographic distributions and ecological requirements even in situations in which the percentage of biased information is “low.” We also evaluated the percentage of occurrence records of IUCN-threatened vertebrates in GBIF provided by iNaturalist, and found that, for 2011 to present, the majority of GBIF records comes from this citizen science repository. These results could have relevant implications for conservation strategies. This effect accentuates the Wallacean and Hutchinsonian shortfalls, which are already some of the most significant impediments to developing effective conservation strategies. The iNaturalist data-cloaking initiative certainly will aid in protecting some threatened species, but could prove harmful to others. We encourage researchers to consider the precision and accuracy of the occurrence data used in their analyses, and we urge iNaturalist to simplify procedures by which credible researchers can access the full-accuracy data.Fil: Contreras Díaz, Rusby G.. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México; MéxicoFil: Nori, Javier. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Diversidad y Ecología Animal. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales. Instituto de Diversidad y Ecología Animal; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales. Centro de Zoología Aplicada; ArgentinaFil: Chiappa Carrara, Xavier. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México; MéxicoFil: Townsend Peterson, A.. University of Kansas; Estados UnidosFil: Soberón, Jorge. University of Kansas; Estados UnidosFil: Osorio Olvera, Luis Alfredo. Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología. Instituto de Ecología; Méxic