LAUSR

Abstract The small hive beetle (SHB), Aethina tumida, is native to the Sub-Saharan region of Africa, but it became invasive in many countries after its first introduction to the USA in 1996. The SHB is a destructive pest of the honey industry and can cause damage in apiaries due to feeding on the honey, pollen, honey bee brood and honey fermentation. SHB was recently found infesting honeybee colonies in the South-Eastern part of Korea, Miryang city in 2016. No inference of the origin or the pathway of the invasion into Korea has been made, so far. We analyzed partial cytochrome oxidase I gene of mitochondrial DNA to unveil the possible source of the invasive populations of SHB in South Korea. A Bayesian inference tree and median joining haplotype network revealed a strong relationship between South Korean and North American populations suggesting that the SHB in South Korea came from the USA. Low genetic variation among Korean populations suggests that the invasion might have occurred in a single event with small number of founders. In addition, a new global distributional map of SHB is provided.