Leptoglossus occidentalis (Hemiptera: Coreidae) occurrence, potential habitats, and CO1 diversity in South Korea

Abstract The present study investigated the occurrence, potential habitats, and COI gene sequence of Leptoglossus occidentalis in South Korea between 2016 and 2018. Because its first detection in 2010 in Changwon, L. occidentalis has been reported in 44 cities and provinces in South Korea. Five species belonging to three families act as hosts in South Korea, including Pinus densiflora, Pinus strobus, Pinus thunbergii, Thuja orientalis, and Euonymus japonicas. Analyzing the mtDNA COI gene sequence of 95 samples from South Korea and data of 16 samples from overseas from the NCBI GenBank, the results indicated three haplotypes distributed throughout South Korea and eight haplotypes globally. The Hap_1 and Hap_2 in South Korea were consistent with those from eastern North America, and the latter was also consistent with samples from Germany and Hungary. Hap_3 was unique in South Korea. To predict the potential distribution of L. occidentalis, the Maxent model was applied, in which the accuracy was assessed to be high (0.902) for 12 model variables at 64 emergence locations. The contribution of each environmental variable to the model was as follows: distance from road (44%), distance from forest (19.8%), and elevation (18.1%). The variable distance from road was found to be a critical factor for the presence of L. occidentalis.