Contributions of citizen scientists to monitoring alien species: the case study on Giant Asian Mantes, Hierodula tenuidentata and H. patellifera (Mantodea: Mantidae)

Analysis of potential niche shifts in alien pairs of mantis species (Insecta, Mantodea) with comments on the current taxonomic and ecological knowledge

“…Species of the genus Hierodula are naturally distributed in the Oriental, Palaearctic, and Australian biogeographic regions but mostly in Asia (Leong 2009, Liu et al 2021). H. tenuidentata, in particular, is thought to be distributed from Indonesia to Caucasus, with alien populations from Northern Ukraine to Spain (Pushkar and Kavurka 2016, Shcherbakov and Battiston 2020, Sevgili and Yılmaz 2022, Mirzaee et al 2023, Pintilioaie et al 2023. However, the presence of this species in Indonesia is doubtful (Shcherbakov and Battiston 2020).…”

“…A curious situation arose in recent years with at least two species of giant Asian mantises (genus Hierodula Burmeister, 1838) colonizing environments in Europe (Battiston et al 2018, 2020, Moulin 2020, Martinović et al 2022, Sevgili and Yılmaz 2022, Moulin and Rouard 2023 and two species of Tenodera Burmeister, 1838 colonizing North America, particularly Northeastern United States (Snyder and Hurd 1995, Snyder and Evans 2006, Anderson 2019. Such a situation may allow us not only to compare the possibility of niche shifts in such insects but also to evaluate potential differences between congeneric taxa sharing a non-native range, which may lead to potential competition between the invaders (e.g., Snyder and Hurd 1995).…”

“…Such a situation may allow us not only to compare the possibility of niche shifts in such insects but also to evaluate potential differences between congeneric taxa sharing a non-native range, which may lead to potential competition between the invaders (e.g., Snyder and Hurd 1995). It could be possible that the native conditions for species spreading more easily, such as one of the Hierodula species in Europe (Sevgili and Yılmaz 2022), are similar to those in its non-native one, while species with more difficulty in dispersal could exhibit less overlap if the generic pattern observed for ectothermic species are respected (Bates et al 2020, Liu et al 2020. In addition, different climatic requirements may lead the species to occupy different environments, as happened with other sister pairs in a different taxonomic group (Summers et al 2023).…”

“…First, I considered the native and alien ranges of a single species and calculated overlap and niche shifts, and then I compared the alien ranges shared by sister taxa. Based on previous observations (Anderson 2019, Battiston et al 2020, Sevgili and Yılmaz 2022, I expected that the most widespread alien species of each genus would have high overlap between their own alien and native niche, as happens in other ectothermic terrestrial animals (Bates et al 2020, Liu et al 2020, and that can lead to a competitive advantage, as has happened in other taxa. Such tasks were complicated and influenced by taxonomic (Battiston et al 2018, 2021, Shcherbakov and Battiston 2020, Liu et al 2021, Shim et al 2021, van der Heyden and Schwarz 2021 and ecological uncertainties (Anderson 2019).…”

“…Such tasks were complicated and influenced by taxonomic (Battiston et al 2018, 2021, Shcherbakov and Battiston 2020, Liu et al 2021, Shim et al 2021, van der Heyden and Schwarz 2021 and ecological uncertainties (Anderson 2019). Furthermore, the analyses relied on citizen science data, which are very helpful in tracking invasions (e.g., Battiston et al 2020, Moulin 2020, Connors et al 2022, Martinović et al 2022, Sevgili and Yılmaz 2022, Moulin and Rouard 2023 and generating observational records (iNaturalist Blog 2023, GBIF.org 2023a, 2023b) but may have limitations in terms of identifying insects at the species level (Gardiner et al 2012, Ratnieks et al 2016. I briefly review these issues here given that they will influence possible future studies.…”