An update for Halyomorphahalys (Stål, 1855) (Hemiptera, Pentatomidae) distribution in Belgium.

Abstract

The brown marmorated stink bug, Halyomorphahalys, represents an important insect pest and subsequently an important agricultural threat due to its polyphagous feeding habits and adaptability to diverse climates. Native from East Asia, its recent establishment in various regions, including North America and Europe, has led to substantial yield losses and economic impacts, which highlight the need for comprehensive research efforts, based on data occurrence by combining those from expert entomologists and citizen scientists. We reported here 14 new occurrences of this insect pest in the three regions of Belgium. Then, these data were merged with data occurrences from other studies and GBIF datasets of Belgium. The combined dataset showed a peak of presence of Halyomorphahalys in October and a dominance of field observations from citizen scientists especially in the nothern part of Belgium, Flanders. Crowd-sourced data have provided valuable insights into the presence and distribution of Halyomorphahalys in Belgium. Given the importance of the generated dataset, it could be asserted that this pest is uniformly distributed across the entire country, which necessitates additional research to evaluate its impact on various crops.