Nota-Note

New records of the Western Conifer Seed Bug Leptoglossus occidentalis Heidemann (Heteroptera: Coreidae) in Chile

Nuevos registros de la chinche de las coníferas occidental Leptoglossus occidentalis Heidemann (Heteroptera: Coreidae) en Chile

FAÚNDEZ, Eduardo I.^1,*, CARVAJAL, Mariom A.¹ & CONTRERAS, Norka²

¹ Laboratorio de Entomología, Instituto de la Patagonia, Universidad de Magallanes. Punta Arenas, Chile. * E-mail: ed.faundez@gmail.com
² Terraplén, 670. Puerto Varas, Chile.

Received 11 - IV - 2019 | Accepted 20 - V - 2019 | Published 26 -IX - 2019 https://doi.org/10.25085/rsea.780305

ABSTRACT. New records of the invasive Western Conifer Seed Bug Leptoglossus occidentalisfrom Chile are given from Araucanía, Los Ríos and Los Lagos Regions. The new records extend the distribution of the species nearly 650 km southwards.

KEYWORDS. Alien species. Anisoscelini. Coreinae. Faunistics.

RESUMEN. Se presentan nuevos registros de la chinche de las coníferas occidental Leptoglossus occidentalisen Chile, de las regiones de la Araucanía, Los Ríos y Los Lagos. Los nuevos registros extienden su distribución conocida en el país cerca de 650 km hacia el sur.

PALABRAS CLAVE. Anisoscelini. Coreinae. Especie exótica. Faunística.

Leptoglossus occidentalis Heidemann, 1910 is an invasive leaf-footed bug from Western United States which has invaded several European, Asían and most recently South and Central American countries (Brailovsky, 2014; Lesieur et al. 2018; van der Heyden, 2019).

Thls specles is considerad an ¡mportant pest on plne nuts (Awan & Pettenella, 2017), but it is also considerad a household pest, as it aggregates for overwintering causing damage to plumbing mataríais and biting people adventitiously (Bates, 2005; Hornok & Kontschán, 2017). In South América, it was first reported in Chile during 2017 from La Serena and Valparaíso (Faúndez et al., 2018b). After its detection, L. occidentalis experlenced a rapid expansión from Atacama to Bío Bío Reglons, and it is considerad as well establlshed since 2018 (Faúndez & Rocca, 2017; Faúndez et al., 2017, 2018a). The purpose of thls contrlbution is to report new records of this specles in the country.

Fig. 1. Distribution of Leptoglossus occidentalis in Southern Chile. Black triangle = known locality; Blue squares = new records.

Fig. 2. Leptoglossus occidentalis, female from Cherquenco. A. Head and prontum; B. Metathoracic leg, HA angles of pronotum; TD = tibial dilation. Bars = 1 mm.

humeral

Material examined

Araucanía Region, Cherquenco, 2-III-2019, 2♀1♂ (E. Faúndez Coll.); Araucanía Region, Pucón, 27-III-2019, 1♀, M. Mellado leg. & coll; Los Ríos Region, Rincón de la Piedra, 27-III-2019, 2♀ (avistadas); Los Lagos Region 30-III-2019 1♂ N. Contreras leg. (Instituto de la Patagonia Coll.).

The new localities extend the known distribution of the bug nearly 680 km southwards, with Puerto Varas becoming the southernmost locality (Fig. 1). These records are within the expected invasion area predicted by the model of Zhu et al. (2014). Therefore, it might be expected that additional records appear among these new localities in the near future, and even southwards. In these southern localities we may expect more collecting in houses for overwintering, as the winters are harder in the south. Thus, especial attention may be needed in order to avoid structural damages as it was reported by Bates (2005). In the new area, it may be confused with Leptoglossus chilensis, from which it can be easily differentiated by having rounded humeral angles of pronotum and lanceolate metatibial dilation (Fig. 2); whereas in L. chilensis there are teeth in both humeral angles and metatibial dilations. These differences are keyed and illustrated in Faúndez et al. (2018b). Finally, it is necessary to remark that the area has several native conifers which may be attacked by this invasive insect. For this reason, it is suggested that taxonomic training should be provided to staff from natural protected areas and forestry services, as well as control alternatives, in order to avoid the negative impact that L. occidentalis may cause to the native flora.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We thank Miguel Mellado for providing his observations on this species, and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.

LITERATURE CITED

Awan, H.U.M., & Pettenella, D. (2017) Pine Nuts: A Review of Recent Sanitary Conditions and Market Development. Forests, 8(10), 367.         [ Links ]

Bates, S.L. (2005) Damage to common plumbing materials caused by overwintering Leptoglossus occidentalis (Hemiptera: Coreidae). The Canadian Entomologist, 137(4), 492-496.         [ Links ]

Brailovsky, H. (2014) Illustrated key for identification of the species included in the genus Leptoglossus (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Coreidae: Coreinae: Anisoscelini), and descriptions of fve new species and new synonyms. Zootaxa, 3794(1), 143-178.         [ Links ]

Faúndez, E.I., & Rocca, J.R. (2017) La chinche de las coníferas occidental, Leptoglossus occidentalis Heidemann (Heteroptera: Coreidae) en Chile; rápida expansión, posibles impactos y desafíos. Revista Chilena de Entomología, 42, 25-27.         [ Links ]

Faúndez, E.I., Rocca, J.R., & Villablanca, J. (2017) Detection of the invasive western conifer seed bug Leptoglossus occidentalis Heidemann, 1910 (Heteroptera: Coreidae: Coreinae) in Chile. Arquivos Entomolóxicos, 17, 317-320.         [ Links ]

Faúndez, E.I., Rocca, J., & Villablanca, J. (2018a) On the establishment of the western conifer seed bug Leptoglossus occidentalis Heidemann (Heteroptera: Coreidae) in Chile. Revista Chilena de Entomología, 44(3), 257-261.         [ Links ]

Faúndez, E.I., López-Aliste, M., & Carvajal, M.A. (2018b) First occurrence of Leptoglossus crassicornis (Dallas) (Heteroptera: Coreidae) in Chile, with a key to the species of Leptoglossus Guérin-Méneville recorded in the country. Revista Chilena de Entomología, 44(4), 410-415.         [ Links ]

FAÚNDEZ, E.I. et al. Leptoglossus occidentalis in Chile

Heidemann, O. (1910) New species of Leptoglossus from North America (Hemiptera: Coreidae). Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington, 12, 191-197.

Hornok, S., & Kontschán, J. (2017) The Western Conifer Seed Bug (Hemiptera: Coreidae) Has the Potential to Bite Humans. Journal of Medical Entomology, 54(4), 1073-1075.

Lesieur, V., Lombaert, E., Guillemaud, T., Courtial, B., Strong, W., Roques, A., & Auger-Rozenberg, M. (2018) The rapid spread of Leptoglossus occidentalis in Europe: A bridgehead invasion. Journal of Pest Science, 92(1), 189-200

van der Heyden, T. (2019) First record of Leptoglossus occidentalis Heidemann (Heteroptera: Coreidae: Coreinae: Anisoscelini) in Costa Rica. Revista Chilena de Entomología, 45(1), 51-53.

Zhu, G.P., Rédei, D., Kment, P., & Bu, W.J. (2014) Effect of geographic background and equilibrium state on niche model transferability: predicting areas of invasion of Leptoglossus occidentalis. Biological invasions, 16(5), 1069-1081.