Beetles with unusual "green thumbs" for growing
fungi are threatening avocado crops and could transform into a more destructive
pest, according to an international team of researchers.
Ambrosia beetles are insects that bore into trees and
cultivate fungi to use as a food source for their young. The fungi -- species
of Fusarium -- carried by types of the Ambrosia beetle can damage or even kill
trees, making the beetle and its fungi a threat to avocado production in the
U.S. and Israel, according to Matthew Kasson, who recently received his doctorate
in forest pathology from Penn State.