Megacopta cribraria ( F.) 297
5.3 Distribution and Spread
5.3.1 Old World Distribution
Megacopta cribraria occurs throughout much of Asia and the Indian subcontinent. It has been reported
from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, China, Japan, Korea, Macao, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar,
Thailand, and Vietnam (Eger et al. 2010). It also has been reported from Australia and New Caledonia
by Eger et al. (2010), but those records probably are in error.
5.3.2 Distribution and Spread in the New World
Megacopta cribraria was initially discovered and identified in North America in nine northeastern
Georgia counties in fall 2009 (Eger et al. 2010, Suiter et al. 2010). Homeowner complaints of aggrega-
tions of adult bugs on exterior surfaces of homes and other buildings (Figure 5.1F-G) prompted on-site
visits by entomologists who determined the source of the aggregations as nearby patches of kudzu,
Pueraria montana var. lobata (Suiter et al. 2010). The invasion of M. cribraria into the southeastern
United States likely resulted from an inadvertent introduction on trade goods or with travelers originat-
ing from the insect’s native Asian range.
Increased globalization since the 1980s has stimulated worldwide economic growth, but the associ-
ated global trade also has provided increased opportunities for accidental introductions of exotic spe-
cies that become pests in their expanded ranges (McNeely 2001). Indeed, Megacopta cribraria adults
are adept hitchhikers and have demonstrated a penchant for landing in or on trucks and automobiles,
passenger and cargo compartments of airplanes, and shipping containers, especially during periods of
elevated adult activity when the bugs are seeking overwintering sites in the fall and after emerging from
those sites in the spring.
The port and mode of entry of this accidental introduction into the United States will likely never
be identified or confirmed, but the proximity of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport to the
site of discovery implicates arrival on either a cargo or passenger flight. However, introduction via sur-
face transportation cannot be discounted because adults survived transit from north Georgia to Central
America in 2011 and 2012 within containerized shipments of cotton yarn via ground and sea shipping
through the port of Miami.
Following the initial discovery of Megacopta cribraria in several northeastern Georgia counties in
October 2009, kudzu growing in adjacent areas and counties was sampled by sweep net for the insect.
That sampling effort confirmed the occurrence of adults and late-instar nymphs in nine counties (Suiter
et al. 2010, Gardner et al. 2013a), whereas sampling in 24 additional counties to the north, west, and
south of those nine counties yielded no M. cribraria. Furthermore, scientists reported that no bugs had
been observed in their sampling of kudzu for Asian soybean rust, caused by Phakopsora pachyrhizi
Syd. and P. Syd. (Phakopsoraceae), in 40 other counties in central and south Georgia in 2009 (Robert C.
Kemerait, personal communication).
Roberts (2010) reported significant infestations (≈60 insects per 20 sweeps) of Megacopta cribraria
in soybean in ten counties in Georgia and two counties in South Carolina in July 2010. Four of those
ten counties in Georgia were among the nine counties from which M. cribraria was reported in 2009.
Based upon reports submitted by cooperators from a variety of universities and agencies in the region,
M. cribraria spread rapidly from those nine Georgia counties into 12 additional states and the District
of Columbia from 2010 through 2016 (Figure 5.2) (Gardner et al. 2013a, Medal et al. 2013a, Leslie
et al. 2014). By the end of 2011, M. cribraria had been reported from all of South Carolina, most of
Georgia and North Carolina, and some localities in Alabama and Virginia. During the next two years,
reports confirmed the insect in all of Alabama, most of Mississippi, Tennessee, and Virginia, and in
Arkansas, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Maryland. Such
rapid spread often is characteristic of invasive species that have adapted easily to the ecological condi-
tions of their expanded ranges with a relative lack of natural enemies and interspecific competition
(Sakai et al. 2001).