Wasp made alien by climate change destroying beehives

(ANSA) - ROME, JAN 14 - An Italian wasp which has turned into a more aggressive alien species due to climate change is wreaking havoc among Italian beehives, green farming officials told ANSA Tuesday.
    The Vespa Orientalis hornet has become just the latest of threats to bees, whose declining numbers are jeopardising agriculture worldwide, said Laura Bortolotti, lead researcher of the Crea AA - Agriculture Environment think tank.
    The hornet has recently destroyed some 40,000 beehives in Lazio, Campania and Molise, officials said.
    "Despite being a native species in Italy, the Vespa Orientalis is behaving as if it were an alien species; its behavior towards bees has changed in a few years, becoming increasingly aggressive, also due to climate change which, in some way, has altered the environmental balance", Bortolotti told ANSA.
    Vespa Orientalis is also an increasing threat to public health in urban areas, they said. (ANSA).