Investigations on colonization pathways and ecological factors promoting the invasion of the Asian wild bee species, Megachile sculpturalis, in Europe

Megachile sculpturalisis is an invasive species in Europe, introduced from subtropical Asia to France a few years ago. It is now spreading northwards via Switzerland to Austria. The original home range of the Giant Resin Bee (Megachile sculpturalis Smith, 1853) constitutes Asia and it is now the only known non-native wild bee in Europe. In 2017 the bee was also found in Vienna. The spread might be closely linked to artificial breeding strucutres that are provided for mansion bees. The Giant Resin Bee might hereby constitutes a competitor for the native mason and carpenter bees according to their nest sites. As mason bees are valuable pollinators the competition can affect this ecosystem service. The project investigates population genetic of the species using SSR-GBS to determine inversion history and genetic effects at the invasion front. Metabarcoding of Pollen will determine the resources used by the species and show one important aspect of ecological context of the spread.