| Summary: | <i>M. alternatus</i> is considered to be an important and effective insect vector for the spread of the important international forest quarantine pest, <i>Bursaphelenchus xylophilus</i>. The precise determination of potential suitable areas of <i>M. alternatus</i> is essential to monitor, prevent, and control <i>M. alternatus</i> worldwide. According to the distribution points and climatic variables, the optimized MaxEnt model and ArcGIS were used to predict the current and future potentially suitable areas of <i>M. alternatus</i> worldwide. The optimized MaxEnt model parameters were set as feature combination (FC) = LQHP and β = 1.5, which were determined by the values of AUC<sub>diff</sub>, OR<sub>10</sub>, and ΔAICc. Bio2, Bio6, Bio10, Bio12, and Bio14 were the dominant bioclimatic variables affecting the distribution of <i>M. alternatus</i>. Under the current climate conditions, the potentially suitable habitats of <i>M. alternatus</i> were distributed across all continents except Antarctica, accounting for 4.17% of the Earth’s total land area. Under future climate scenarios, the potentially suitable habitats of <i>M. alternatus</i> increased significantly, spreading to a global scale. The results of this study could provide a theoretical basis for the risk analysis of the global distribution and dispersal of <i>M. alternatus</i> as well as the precise monitoring and prevention of this beetle.
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