Table Of Content21st
Century
Skills Library
ANIMAL INVADERS
E(cid:2)(cid:3)(cid:4)(cid:5)(cid:6)(cid:7)
A(cid:8)(cid:9) B(cid:10)(cid:4)(cid:3)(cid:4)
Susan H. Gray
Cher r y Lake Publishing
Ann Ar bor, Michigan
Published in the United States of America by Cherry Lake Publishing
Ann Arbor, MI
www.cherrylakepublishing.com
Content Adviser: Anand B. Persad, PhD, BCE, Regional Technical Adviser/Lecturer
Entomology, ISA Certified Arborist, The Davey Institute, Kent, Ohio
Please note: Our map is as up-to-date as possible at the time of publication.
Photo Credits: Cover and pages 1, 4, 6, 8, 9, 11, 12, and 25, © David Cappaert, Michigan
State University, Bugwood.org; page 13, © Brian Sullivan, USDA, APHIS, PPQ,
Bugwood.org; page 15, © Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural
Resources-Forestry Archive, Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural
Resources, Bugwood.org; page 18, © Joseph O’Brien, USDA Forest Service, Bugwood.
org; pages 20, 22, and 26, © David Cappaert
Map by XNR Productions Inc.
Copyright ©2008 by Cherry Lake Publishing
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any
form or by any means without written permission from the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gray, Susan H.
Emerald ash borer / by Susan H. Gray.
p. cm.—(Animal invaders)
ISBN-13: 978-1-60279-112-1
ISBN-10: 1-60279-112-0
1. Emerald ash borer—Juvenile literature. I. Title. II. Series.
QL596.B8G73 2008
595.76’3—dc22 2007034973
Cherry Lake Publishing would like to acknowledge the work of
The Partnership for 21st Century Skills.
Please visitwww.21stcenturyskills.org for more information.
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C H A P T E R O N E
Eat and Go 4
C H A P T E R T W O
A Boring Life 6
C H A P T E R T H R E E
Invading Beetles 13
C H A P T E R F O U R
Beetles Working in Secret 18
C H A P T E R F I V E
Spores and More 22
Map 28
Glossary 30
For More Information 31
Index 32
About the Author 32
CHAPTER ONE
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The emerald ash borer larva zigzags under tree bark.
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he larva eats a tiny bit and then scoots forward. It lives
just beneath the bark of an ash tree. Its body is tightly
sandwiched between the bark and a thick layer of wood. It
barely has room to move. Its world is completely dark and
almost silent.
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The surroundings are not
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comfortable. But the food
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It’s only a little green beetle, no bigger
supply for this young emerald
than a penny. How can the emerald ash
borer be such an enormous pest? It is a
ash borer is plentiful. Water
pest if it’s an invasive species. A species is
and nutrients are to the larva’s a particular kind of plant or animal. And
an invasive species is one that has moved
right and left, above its body into a new area and has taken over. In its
new home, an invasive species may have
and below it. All the larva has no natural enemies, and it can grow out
of control. Its numbers will increase, and
to do is to keep eating and
perhaps little can be done to stop it.
Human activity usually brings in
scooting forward.
invasive species. People can carry in
these plants or animals on ships, in crates
And scooting and eating it
of fruit, and even in boxes of clothing.
The emerald ash borer probably came
does, day after day, chewing
to North America in wooden crates from
Asia. Since then, its numbers have grown.
a tunnel as it goes. This
Now, millions of emerald ash borers
continues for weeks. Finally, are in North America, and the insect has
become a pest. Can you think of any way
the larva stops, changes into shipping companies could have kept these
beetles out?
an adult beetle, and drills, or
bores, its way out of the tree.
ANIMALINVADERS:E(cid:2)(cid:3)(cid:4)(cid:5)(cid:6)(cid:7)A(cid:8)(cid:9)B(cid:10)(cid:4)(cid:3)(cid:4) 5
CHAPTER TWO
A B(cid:10)(cid:4)(cid:15)(cid:13)(cid:16) L(cid:15)(cid:12)(cid:3)
Adult emerald ash borers have three main
body parts and two sets of wings.
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he adult emerald ash borer is a small, slender beetle.
It is named for its emerald green color and its behavior.
The borer spends its whole life inside, on, and around ash
trees. It also has a habit of boring holes into and out of
those trees.
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Like other beetles, its body
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has three main parts—the head,
Skills
The emerald ash borer is a kind of
thorax, and abdomen. The
beetle. And beetles are types of
insects. Like all insects, the emerald ash
small head has two large black-
borers have three body parts, six legs,
or copper-colored eyes. On the and antennae.
Like all beetles, emerald ash borers
thorax are three pairs of legs and also have body parts called (cid:69)(cid:76)(cid:89)(cid:84)(cid:82)(cid:65).
You have probably noticed these on
two pairs of wings. The outer beetles around your home. The elytra
are hard wings that fold down to
wings are a bright, metallic green.
cover the back of the beetle. Beneath
them are light, lacy wings. When the
The inner wings beneath these are
beetle flies, it holds its elytra out to the
sides for balance. The delicate wings
more delicate.
underneath do the flying. In addition
to aiding balance, what other purpose
When the wings are spread,
might elytra serve?
you can see a shiny, reddish-
purple abdomen. Adults are about
0.3 to 0.6 inch (0.8 to 1.4 centimeters)
in length.
The emerald ash borer spends most
of its life just beneath the bark of the ash
ANIMALINVADERS:E(cid:2)(cid:3)(cid:4)(cid:5)(cid:6)(cid:7)A(cid:8)(cid:9)B(cid:10)(cid:4)(cid:3)(cid:4) 7
Emerald ash borer eggs are about 0.04 inch (1 millimeter) wide.
tree. Only as an adult does it come out and begin to fly
around. Males and females mate in the spring, about 7 to
10 days after boring their way out of the trees. The female
lays her eggs a little more than a week later.
She lays about 70 to 90 tiny, white eggs on the bark
of the ash tree. A week or so later, the eggs hatch. Small,
creamy-white larvae creep out. They look nothing like
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