Bagrada hilaris (Burmeister) 209
3.3 Distribution
3.3.1 Old World Distribution
Bagrada hilaris is distributed widely in the Old World. It is found from Africa and southern Europe east
through Pakistan, India, China, and parts of southeast Asia (Rider et al. 2002, Arakelian 2011, Reed et
al. 2013a, Taylor et al. 2014, Taylor et al. 2015).
3.3.2 New World Distribution
Bagrada hilaris first was collected in North America from Los Angeles County, California, United States
in 2008 (Garrison 2011), spreading quickly throughout southern California (Palumbo and Natwick 2010,
Reed et al. 2013b). It rapidly spread east through Arizona (2009), Nevada (2011), Utah (2011), and New
Mexico (2010) to Texas (2012) (Bealmear et al. 2012, Bundy et al. 2012, Vitanza 2012, Reed et al. 2013b,
Lambert and Dudley 2014, Santa Ana 2015, Taylor et al. 2015) and south into northern Mexico (Sánchez-
Peña 2014, Torres-Acosta and Sanchez-Peña 2016). There are reports, thus far, of B. hilaris activity from
at least 22 counties in California, 5 in Arizona, 10 in New Mexico, 2 in Nevada and 6 in Texas. In 2014,
a population also was found in Maui, Hawaii (Matsunaga 2014). In the continental United States, the
initial spread of this bug resulted in a devastating attack on cole crop production in the desert valleys of
California and Arizona during 2010–2011 (Palumbo 2015a), and now it has been found in agricultural,
urban, and wild landscapes as far north as Yolo County (≈100 miles northeast of San Francisco, CA)
(Dara 2014) and as far east as central Texas (Santa Ana 2015; Raul T. Villanueva, personal communica-
tion) (Figure 3.4).
It is likely that Bagrada hilaris was introduced accidentally into southern California via shipping
containers and, thereby, were disseminated throughout transportation routes in the southwestern United
States. These possible modes of introduction and dispersal are supported by an interception of adults
of this species on a shipment of castor oil drums from India in 2010 (Gevork Arakelian, personal com-
munication) and by 12 interceptions of these bugs by Florida agricultural inspection stations during
2011–2013 on transported plant material (LeVeen and Hodges 2015). Recent infestations of B. hilaris in
Hawaii during 2014–2015 (HDOA 2014, Darcy E. Oishi, personal communication) also suggest com-
merce involvement. Movement and establishment of these bugs is further facilitated by the presence of
available food sources, particularly wild and invasive weedy mustards (Suazo et al. 2012) prevalent along
transportation routes and other disturbed areas.
It now has been found in South America. Faúndez et al. (2016) reported it from Estero las Cruces,
Chile, where they found large numbers of nymphs and adults feeding on Brassica rapa L. The local-
ity is near both an international airport and the Pan American Highway, either a possible source of
introduction.
2.0 mmFIGURE 3.3 Comparison of the heads of Murgantia histrionica and Bagrada hilaris (f ronta l view). (Courtesy of C. Scott
Bundy).