The yellow-legged, or Asian hornet, Vespa velutina, has invaded large parts of South-Western Europe and now starts spreading further north. Recently, it has been reported from Hamburg, Northern Germany. Yet, the origin of this new invasion is not clear as the founders may have come either from Southern Europe or from Asia. We here use COI sequences to test these alternatives and find that the specimens from Hamburg share the same haplotype with all Southern European samples. This suggests that the species has been transported long distance from other Europe to Northern Germany and shows further its high invasion potential.

中文翻译：

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Vespa velutina nigrithorax Lepeltier，1836年来自汉堡（德国北部），与其他欧洲人口共享相同的COI单倍型

黄腿或亚洲大黄蜂Vespa velutina入侵了西南欧的大部分地区，现在开始向更北部扩散。最近，德国北部汉堡有报道。然而，这种新入侵的起源尚不清楚，因为创始人可能来自南欧或亚洲。我们在这里使用COI序列来测试这些替代方案，发现汉堡的标本与所有南欧样品具有相同的单倍型。这表明该物种已从其他欧洲远距离转移到德国北部，并进一步显示出其极高的入侵潜力。