Monday, November 23, 2009

Nkatha Mwenda 12

Alien invaders have already arrived and I'm not talking about the aliens that are green and that have antennas. When I say invaders I mean invasive species, which are organisms that harm or have the potential to harm an environment, like the Asian Long Horned Beetle. This beetle didn't come by U.F.O. but has come to the U.S.A. through infested wood packaging. However, green or not they have the same mission. Their mission is to destroy, but in the cause of the Asian Long Horned Beetle they haven't come to destroy humans but have come to destroy our hardwoods and our ecosystem.
The Asian Long Horned Beetle is originally found in China, Korea, and Japan. The land and climate in these countries are quite similar to each other. Korea has bitterly cold winters and hot and humid summers. In the fall and the spring the weather is sunny and generally dry. Japan and China's weather is very much the same as Korea's. These countries also have forests, deserts, and other physical land features. North America has a number of predators that will eat the Asian Long Horned Beetle like other beetles, birds, lizards, spiders, toads, and wasps. However, that does not seem to stop the rapid growth of the Asian Long Horned Beetle.
The Anoplophora Glabripennis or commonly known as the Asian Long Horned Beetle is only about one and a quarter inches long and about one and a third inches wide. In the larvae stage Asian Long Horned Beetles are a pale yellow and worn like. In the Pupae stage they are an off- white color. When they become adults they turn shiny black with white spots and have antennas with white bands around them that are almost as long as their bodies. Asian Long Horned Beetles lay their eggs in a variety of hardwoods and as their babies grow up the feed on the hardwoods such as Silver, Red, and Sugar Maples, Birches, Horse Chestnuts, Poplars, Willows, Elms, Black Locusts and Sycamores. When they are fully grown they puncture the wood until the make a hole in it and emerge and start the cycle all over again.
The Asian Long Horned Beetle has invaded New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Massachusetts, and Canada. The land and climate in these areas are very similar to the land and climate in the Asian Long Horned Beetles natural habitat because these areas have many forests and similar temperatures in the different seasons. The Asian Long Horned Beetle came to those areas through infested packaging wood from China. (See attacked map for locations of the invasions).
The Asian Long Horned Beetle harms the environment by puncturing numerous holes in hardwoods that cause them to die. This does not only cause the hardwoods to die but also causes whole ecosystems to collapse. Without hardwood trees we would have no maple syrup, no vast forests, and no animal life that depended on hardwoods to live would survive.
People have become aware of the crisis of these silent and mostly unseen invaders and are trying to put a stop to them before it is too late. Some are trying to find infested trees and destroy them through burning or chipping of the wood to kill as many larvae and pupae as possible to stop this deadly cycle from continuing.
Invasive species are a commonly found problem in many parts of the world. They only harm environments outside of their own and once they get outside of their own environment there is definitely trouble close behind. Scientists have taken action and have tried many things to stop the Asian Long Horned Beetle and other invasive species but they haven't gotten a effective solution yet. Hopefully they will find a way to stop these disastrous invasions before it is truly too late for the ever so important native species.

4 comments:

  1. Nkatha
    I love how you added fun information and funny things. Its organized really good and you have no repeated words and great word choice. Maybe you could add a little bit more in the paragraph 4 and make sure its 2 pages long.
    -Lindsey :)

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  3. Nkatha, I much enjoyed reading your paper on the Asian Long Horned Beetle. I found that you were VERY descriptive on how/what it looks like! Great job on that! You had a great opening paragraph, loved it, and I really liked your concluding sentence. I'd say if you had to change anything, maybe add a sentence or two in your shorter paragraphs? but other then that I cannot think of anything that I would do to change your paper. It was AWESOME!!!!!!

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  4. Totally amazing paper, I loved it. Maybe change a few words to make it even more interesting, and make sure to indent your sentances to make it easier to read. Make sure that it is a full 2 pages longer. I loved how you started off every sentance with a large variety of words. Keep up writting this good, and you should become an autor!!
    From, Beau

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