Introduced/Invasive Species Blogpost
My organism is the Lycorma emelianovi, or the Lycorma delicatula from China. The fully grown ones are about 14 to 15 millimeters in length, and 40 to 50 millimeters with their wings fully spread out. Their front, or outer wings are of a light grayish brown color, and have more than 20 black circular dots on the wings. Their back wings, or inner wings are a bright red color. It sucks up the juice of the Tree of Heaven, and juices from other fruit trees, such as the grape trees, apple trees, pear trees, etc. There aren't many natural predators of this organism, or most of them don't live in South Korea, but some of them that live here in South Korea are insects like praying mantises, dragonflies, banana spiders, wasps, etc. It was introduced to South Korea from the materials or goods and products that were imported from China. The most common example is wood and furnitures made out of wood. The eggs of this organism that was laid in the trees were shipped with the tree that was cut and sent to Korea. The eggs hatched in Korea, and as more and more eggs were "imported" or brought from China, they began to reproduce at a fast rate. This organism impacts South Korea because as mentioned before, it sucks up the juice from the fruit trees, which takes away the nutrients of the fruit trees, and eventually causes the fruit trees to die. Also, it has a contagious disease that it carries around, and it kills other insects that rely on the juices of the fruit trees (but only a small amount). Koreans are trying hard to save the fruit trees and find a solution to this problem by putting certain chemicals into the trees that the organism lays its eggs or spraying things like insecticides (that are harmful to this organism but not other insects that are innocent) on the trees. Also, they are hoping the natural predators reproduce in a fast rate too, so that this organism can become less diverse than usual.
Citation:
http://terms.naver.com/entry.nhn?cid=2688&docId=774437&mobile&categoryId=2690
Hagwon's World Encyclopedia
http://terms.naver.com/entry.nhn?cid=2688&docId=774437&mobile&categoryId=2690
Hagwon's World Encyclopedia