3. Potential Impacts Fig. 3 In Wuri District, W. auropunctata was mainly distributed around semi-disturbed secondary forest (a), while in Heping District, W. auropunctata was primarily found in orchards (b) and along street trees in the commercial district (c). Fig. 4 The appearance of the sting site changes over time. five minutes post-sting (a), one hour post-sting (b), 24 hours post-sting (c), 48 hours post-sting (d), 72 hours post-sting (e). Fig. 5 Workers of W. auropunctata on a tree trunk with scale insects (a), and W. auropunctata workers attacking workers of Pheidole nodus, a native ant species in Taiwan (b). 153 is aggressive when provoked, and its sting is typically painful with a burning or itching sensation that usually lasts for a few hours (Fig. 4) (Lee et al., 2015; Wetterer & Porter, 2003). However, the intensity of reaction varies from person to person. In Heping District, infested areas include orchards where W. auropunctata colonies were found nesting in fruit trees. Consequently, there is a risk of W. auropunctata workers falling out of trees and stinging farm workers when they are maintaining the orchard or harvesting the fruit. In fact, there have been multiple cases of field assistants being stung during monitoring or treatment operations. Furthermore, we also observed that W. auropunctata relationships with populations homopterans, such as scale insects, in the infested areas Establishment and control of Wasmannia auropunctata in Taiwan social structure. Although we were unable to pinpoint the exact source of introduction based on the current genetic dataset, W. auropunctata in Taiwan most likely originated from another (i.e., secondary invasive population introduction) since the mtDNA haplotype recovered from W. auropunctata in Taiwan was rather common in most invasive populations, including those in Hawaii and Florida, USA. Additionally, our microsatellite analysis further indicated that W. auropunctata populations in Taiwan were also undergoing clonal reproduction, a unique reproductive system commonly found in most introduced populations (Foucaud et al., 2007). Wasmannia auropunctata form mutualistic
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