Insect invasion success depends on taxon and trophic group

By

Mally, Richard
Turner, Rebecca
Nahrung, Helen
Yamanaka, Takehiko
Fenn-Moltu, Gyda
Bertelsmeier, Cleo
Roques, Alain
Brockerhoff, Eckehard
Pureswaran, Deepa
Liebhold, Andrew M.

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2025-05-29

Original Publication

NeoBiota : advancing research on alien species and biological invasions

Volume

99

Pages

19--43

Subjects

Brood carer , detritivore , feeding guild , herbivore , invasion disharmony , non-native species , parasite , predator

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sophia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.99.151227

 

Abstract

The majority of non-native animal species globally are insects, though some insect species are more successful invaders than others. These differences can be attributed, in part, to differences among dominant trophic groups. Previous analyses indicate that insect herbivores are generally over-represented among non-native species while other groups, such as predators, are under-represented. Here we explore how invasion success varies among insect taxa and trophic groups. We quantify over-representation in species grouped by taxon (order or family) and larval trophic group (herbivore, detritivore, predator, parasite, brood carer); over- and under-representation is computed by comparing proportional representation of groups among non-native species in 12 world regions with total numbers in these same groups globally. Although herbivores are generally the most successful group among non-natives, we found their invasion success to vary among their taxonomic groups: herbivores are over-represented among Hemiptera, Diptera, Thysanoptera and Hymenoptera, but under-represented among Lepidoptera and Orthoptera; similar patterns are seen at the family-level within orders. Even after accounting for trophic group, some orders were still over-represented. Within trophic groups, this pattern appeared strongest for herbivores, where predominantly parthenogenetic families belonging to the Hemiptera and Thysanoptera were over-represented in non-native assemblages, while families in the Lepidoptera and Polyneoptera were under-represented. Over time (1850s to 2000s), fractions of non-native species numbers in certain orders and trophic groups have varied, such as among parasites, where a considerable turnover took place from mostly bird-lice (Psocodea) in the 19th century to parasitic wasps (Hymenoptera) in the 20th century. It is thus likely that factors other than trophic group, such as associations with invasion pathways (e.g., plants, wood packaging), cause the observed differences in the over-representation of families belonging to different orders.