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A USDA advisory committee is preparing a nationwide strategy to eradicate the Asian longhorn beetle before it establishes a permanent foothold in the U.S. This effort has several parts, the first and most important of which is to learn more about the Asian longhorn beetle.
Identification and Study
The genus Anoplophora, to which the Asian longhorn beetle belongs, is comparatively unknown, and scientists believe it may contain as many as twenty-five species. Most modern information about the beetle was written in the 1940s and '50s, most of it in Chinese. But establishing the validity of the species (by determining its limits and deciding which individual insects fit into them and which others constitute a separate species) and naming it correctly is the first step in controlling the invasion.
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