BioInvasions Records (2016) Volume 5, Issue 1: 7–12 '2,: http://dx.doi.org/10.3391/bir.2016.5.1.02 Open Access © 2016 The Author(s). Journal compilation © 2016 REABIC Rapid Communication Brachyplatys vahlii (Fabricius, 1787), an introduced bug from Asia: first report in the Western Hemisphere (Hemiptera: Plataspidae: Brachyplatidinae) 1 1 2 Annette Aiello *, Kristin Saltonstall and Victor Young 1Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Apartado 0843-03092 Balboa, Ancón, Panamá, Rep. de Panamá 2PO Box 0843-01466, Balboa, Ancón, Panamá, Rep. de Panamá *Corresponding author E-mail:
[email protected] Received: 22 August 2015 / Accepted: 22 October 2015 / Published online: 20 November 2015 Handling editor: John Ross Wilson Abstract Brachyplatys vahlii (Fabricius, 1787) (Hemiptera: Plataspidae) was first detected in Panama in 2012. It represents the second introduction of the Plataspidae into the New World, its first report from the Neotropics, and the first introduction of the genus Brachyplatys into the New World. The bug was identified using morphological characters and confirmed using molecular techniques. This bug poses a potentially serious threat to several important crops in Panama, including the popular Cajanus cajan, known locally as guandú, and peach palm/pixbae palm (Bactris gasipaes), widely cultivated throughout the Neotropics. Key words: Bactris, Cajanus, Heteroptera, Panama, Plataspididae (Burmeister, 1835), Pentatomidae)], a major pest Introduction of Brassica oleracea (Brassicaceae) (Bundy et al. 2012). Invasive species are among the greatest threats to In 1999, a small brown-speckled bug, Megacopta native biodiversity worldwide (Mooney and Hobbs cribraria (Fabricius, 1798) (Hemiptera: Plataspidae), 2000). Since life began, organisms have found native to Japan, somehow reached the southeastern ways to travel and settle in new territories, but US and established itself in the state of Georgia, the magnitude of these movements in modern where it began attacking the Kudzu vine (Pueraria times is unprecedented.