The hornet Vespa crabro was introduced to the North American continent during the mid 19th century. Since that time it has spread from its introduction point at New York City to practically the entire eastern half of the contiguous United States and parts of Canada. A genetic evaluation of this population was performed to determine the amount of variation it contains and to ascertain the probable manner in which it was founded. Our data indicated that the population has an exceedingly low level of variation at microsatellite loci, suggesting that it was founded by a very small number of gynes and that there have been no subsequent episodes of gene flow from the its native range of western Europe.
Species 1: Hymenoptera Vespidae Vespa crabro (European hornet)
Species 2: Hymenoptera Vespidae Vespa crabro germana
Keywords: Microsatellite, Introduced species
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