Urban Shanghai May Have Primed Spotted Lanternflies to Invade U.S.

Spotted lanternflies, native to parts of Asia, were first found in the United States in 2014 in a single Pennsylvania county. Since then they have spread across the Eastern United States, invading nearly two dozen states and forming thick summer swarms in cities such as New York and Philadelphia.

A study published this month in Proceedings of the Royal Society B suggests the insects that reached the United States descended from a population in urban Shanghai and may already have been adapted to city conditions. Researchers compared genomes from locations in the Northeastern United States and Shanghai and found urban and rural Shanghai populations were genetically distinct.

American specimens showed much less genetic diversity and appeared to belong to a single population that traced back to the urban Shanghai lineage. The urban and U.S. lanternflies carried changes in genes tied to stress responses and to detoxifying pesticides and pollutants, which could have helped them tolerate new diets, chemicals and climates.

United States, Shanghai

spotted lanternfly, urban shanghai, united states, pennsylvania, genetic diversity, genomes, pesticides, pollutants, adaptation, summer swarms