Across Hawaii, what looks like a bad haircut on the landscape is marking the slow death of the coconut palm, that icon of paradise. The culprit: the coconut rhinoceros beetle, a glossy, thumb-size scarab that bores into the crowns of palms to feed on sap. Today, all that stands between the beetle and a palm-poor Hawaii is a small team of scientists, field crews and grub-sniffing dogs.
Source: Hawaii Tribune Herald
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