U.S. customs officials located at Miami International Airport were quite surprised to find an insect known as Ataris Pallidipennis Stal in a shipment of flowers which had come in from South Africa.
The little bug could present a great threat to the delicately balanced ecosystems here in the United States. Should they become fruitful and multiply, it could lead to a cascading series of consequences.
Waldmar Klassen, an entomology expert at the University of Florida Tropical Research and Education Center in Homestead stated that it’s possible that the insect, which typically feeds on grass, could end up devouring the saw grass found in the everglades but that “it would be premature to say anything about this in terms of a threat.”
Florida has yet to determine how to handle the matter. y.
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