Climatic similarity between a native region and a target area is the first step to be considered for judging an invasive risk of alien species. In this study, we compared climate of the origin of Solenopsis invicta with that of South Korea. Match Climate application in CLIMEX software was used to simulate Composite Match Index (CMI) which quantitatively evaluated climatic similarity between two locations. We selected a native city (Cordoba in Argentina) of Solenopsis invicta and compared its climate with the current climate in South Korea. Result showed that climatic similarity is higher in Gyeongsangbuk-do area including Andong and Pohang, When only comparing climate during April to October, CMI was generally increased, but areas with the highest CMI was decreased.

Climatic factors are known to be the most critical on estimating potential distribution of species, suggesting that an area having similar climate to origin of a pest may be vulnerable to its invasion. In this study, we selected Leptoglossus occidentalis, a pest causing significant forest damage in South Korea, and compared current climate of its 3 known origins with that of 74 cities in South Korea by using ‘Match Climate’ function in CLIMEX software. Result showed that overall climatic similarity between them was moderately high, indicating consistency of climatic similarity with the current distribution of Leptoglossus occidentalis in South Korea.