Check List 19(1): 127-131, doi: 10.15560/19.1.127
Metamasius hemipterus (Linnaeus, 1758) (Coleoptera, Curculionidae, Dryophthorinae) on a hand of bananas in Greece
expand article infoJakovos Demetriou‡, Evangelos Koutsoukos§, Christos Kazilas|, Konstantinos Kalaentzis|, Christos Georgiadis§
‡ BFC RAF Akrotiri, Akrotiri, Cyprus§ National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece| Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden, Netherlands¶ Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, Rhodos, Greece

Corresponding author: Christos Georgiadis ( cgeorgia@biol.uoa.gr )

Academic editor: Kirill Makarov
© Jakovos Demetriou, Evangelos Koutsoukos, Christos Kazilas, Konstantinos Kalaentzis, Christos Georgiadis.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation:
Open Access
Abstract

A dead individual of Metamasius hemipterus (Linnaeus, 1758) was collected by a citizen scientist in Athens, Greece from a hand of imported bananas. The equatorial origin of the fruit as well as the extensive growth of a fungus on the specimen, both suggest an unintentional introduction as a contaminant. Nevertheless, this record highlights the valu-able contribution of citizen scientists in the study of alien species. Although the species is not presently considered as established in the country, citizen-science initiatives in order to raise awareness and monitor its presence are ongoing.

Keywords
Alien species, biological invasions, citizen science, contaminant, Rhynchophorini, West Indian Sugarcane Weevil