Halyomorpha halys (Stål) 247
4.3 Worldwide Distribution
4.3.1 Asia
Halyomorpha halys is native to Asian countries including China (except Xinjiang and Qinghai prov-
inces), Japan (except Hokkaido), Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, and Myanmar (Wang and Liu 2005) (Figure
4.2). The presence of H. halys in North Korea was confirmed in 2010 when H. halys specimens collected
from North Korea were provided to South Korea by a Hungarian natural history museum (Kim 2010).
4.3.2 Europe
Halyomorpha halys was reported in Europe for the first time in 2007 from Zurich, Switzerland
(Wermelinger et al. 2008, Leskey and Nielsen 2018), but apparently had been present at least since
2004 in this area (Tim Haye, unpublished data; see Acknowledgments; Gariepy et al. 2014a) and in
adjacent Liechtenstein (Balzers) (Arnold 2009). Numbers have increased steadily over the years, and
the species now has spread to other cantons in Switzerland (Aargau, Basel-Stadt, Basel-Landschaft,
Bern, Genève, Solothurn, St. Gallen, Schaffhausen, Ticino, Thurgau) (Wyniger and Kment 2010, Haye
et al. 2014a), reaching the southern parts of Germany (Konstanz) in November 2011 (Heckmann 2012)
and the adjoining eastern border of France (Strasbourg, region Alsace) in 2012 (Callot and Brua 2013).
In October and December 2013, it was detected in the region of Île-de-France (Paris, Essonne) some
400 kilometers (km) further to the west (Garrouste et al. 2014). In late 2012, it was detected in Modena
(region Emilia Romagna) in northern Italy (Maistrello et al. 2013) and in August 2013 in San Benigno
(region Piemonte) (Pansa et al. 2013). A citizen science project uncovered approximately 200 specimens
in northern Italy (70% in Emilia Romagna, 14% in Lombardia, 1% in Piemonte) and in the Swiss canton
Ticino (15%) (Maistrello et al. 2014, 2016). In late 2013, nymphs and adults were found in the vicinity of
Budapest, Hungary (Vétek et al. 2014) at more than several hundred kilometers from the closest known
records in Italy. The first report of H. halys in England occurred in 2010 when two adults were found in
passenger luggage originating in the US (Malumphy 2014). The second occurred in 2013 when an adult
was intercepted in Teesport, North Yorhshire in a shipment of stone from China. The first records for
Greece were published (Milonas and Partsinevelos 2014) based on individuals becoming a nuisance in
houses in the center of Athens in autumn 2011, more than 1,000 km from the closest European popula-
tions. It has yet to be determined if the distant populations in Athens, Budapest, and Paris resulted from
independent introductions from Asia and North America or were the consequence of a ‘bridgehead-
effect’ (i.e., a translocation from one of the other European populations). The spread within Switzerland
is confirmed by genetic data (mitochondrial COI) (Gariepy et al. 2014b) and could have been fostered
either by natural dispersal or short-distance human translocation of infested goods or materials or other
means of transportation. Barcoding data of the Italian populations revealed that the Lombardia popula-
tion is similar to individuals from adjoining Ticino, indicating natural spread or short-distance transloca-
tion, whereas the population in Emilia Romagna has a low genetic diversity indicating that although their
origin still could not be resolved satisfactorily, a separate invasion event is likely (Cesari et al. 2015).
Recently, analyses of haplotype diversity indicated secondary invasion movements within Europe as
well as the occurrence of multiple invasions from Asia (Gariepy et al. 2015). The first specimen found
in Romania was collected on September 15, 2014 from a botanical garden in Bucharest (Macavei et al.
2015). Additional breeding populations were also found up to 5 km away from the original site suggest-
ing that the bug may have been present in the city for 1-2 years. In August 2015, the first specimens were
observed in the west (Vorarlberg) and east (Vienna) of Austria (Rabitsch and Friebe 2015). It seems
most likely that the western population has reached the country by natural spread from nearby Swiss
populations. The eastern population could have arrived from adjacent Hungary or from an independent
introduction. In Serbia, H. halys was first found in October of 2015 via a Facebook post to Insects of
Serbia and a posting to the Forum on Biological Diversity (Šeat 2015). In 2017, the first record of H. halys
in Slovakia occurred in the southern town Sturrovo when a fifth instar was collected (Hemala and Kment