An unwelcome premiere

摘要

The eburia nigrovittata is a small longhorn beetle in the cerambycidae family, but the economic damage it can wreak is out of all proportion to its size. Thus the US Customs and Border Protection agency (CBP) recently sent a load of coconuts from Mexico containing such insects back at the border. The incident at the Pharr-Reynosa international bridge across the Rio Grande on the US border with Mexico in Texas was the first time the beetle was spotted in the USA. The animals feed on plant tissue, such as stems, trunks, or roots, both of herbaceous as well as of woody plants, often in injured or weak plants. This can have a devastating impact on forests and untreated timber.