lydemapr: an R package to track the spread of the invasive spotted lanternfly (Lycorma delicatula, White 1845) (Hemiptera, Fulgoridae) in the United States

A crucial asset in the management of invasive species is open-access sharing data on range invaders and progression their spread. Such should be current, comprehensive, consistent standardised, to support reproducible comparable forecasting efforts amongst multiple researchers managers. Here, we present lydemapr R package containing spatiotemporal mapping functions visualise current spread spotted lanternfly ( Lycorma delicatula , White 1841) Western Hemisphere. The a forest agricultural pest eastern Mid-Atlantic Region U.S., where it was first discovered 2014. As 2023, has been found 14 states according State Federal Departments Agriculture. However, lack easily accessible, fine-scale its hampers research efforts. We obtained memoranda-of-understanding from several agencies citizen-science projects, gaining access internal point observations. then cleaned, harmonised, anonymised combined individual sources into single comprehensive dataset. resulting dataset contains spatial gridded at 1 km 2 resolution, with yearly information presence/absence lanternflies, establishment status population density across 658,390 will aid researchers, managers public understanding, modelling managing this pest.