Publicly-shared DNA barcodes and citizen science images provide new evidence on the establishment and spread of a lantana biological control agent, Orphanostigma haemorrhoidalis (Lepidoptera, Crambidae)

Abstract

Orphanostigma haemorrhoidalis (Guenée) (Lepidoptera, Crambidae), indigenous to the Americas, was widely used in the Old World for the biological control of Lantana camara L. (Verbenaceae) from the 1950s to the 1980s. DNA barcodes from the Barcode of Life Data System (BOLD) and citizen scientist images from the iNaturalist and Afromoths websites were used to detect the establishment and spread of O. haemorrhoidalis in countries where it has not previously been reported. Analysis of DNA barcodes showed that there are two genetically distinguishable populations of O. haemorrhoidalis in the Americas, one in the south-eastern USA and the other widespread in the rest of the Neotropics. The two populations were introduced into different parts of the World and subsequently spread. We used DNA barcodes from BOLD to clarify that a population from Florida is established in Hawai’i, Australia and Fiji, while a population from Trinidad is established in parts of mainland Africa (including new records for Cameroon, Nigeria and Ghana), Madagascar, Mauritius and La Réunion. New country records for O. haemorrhoidalis were established from iNaturalist images from Eswatini, Kenya and Mozambique, and from Afromoths for Tanzania.