Global invasion risk of Apocephalus borealis, a honey bee parasitoid

The flies can also harbour viral infections and nosematosis. Recently, nucleotide sequences identical to A. borealis were reported from bulk screenings of honey bees from Belgium and South Korea, although no adult flies have been collected.

To predict the potential invasion risk of A. borealis across the world, we constructed a MaxEnt species distribution model based on occurrence data from North America submitted to the citizen science project ZomBee Watch (zombeewatch.org). We show that extensive parts of Europe, the Mediterranean Basin, Asia Minor, southern Africa, eastern Asia, Australasia, and North and South America show high degrees of climatic suitability for invasion, suggesting that the fly could establish in these regions.