emerald ash borer

plural emerald ash borers

1. Agrilus planipennis, a green beetle native to Asia and a significant pest of ash trees in Europe and North America.

   Already, the Emerald ash borer has killed over 1,000 ash trees in five countries around Detroit, Michigan.

   2002, Invasive species: hearing before the Subcommittee on Department Operations, Oversight, Nutrition, and Forestry of the Committee on Agriculture, House of Representatives, One Hundred Seventh Congress, second session, October 2, 2002, United States Congress House Committee on Agriculture, page 43

   2 more examples

   The emerald ash borer, Agrilus planipennis Fairmair (formerly A. marcopoli Obenberger), is native to China, Japan, Korea, and Mongolia.

   2002 July 17, Taylor A. Scarr, Emerald ash borer, Canadian Food Inspection Agency

   Then there was the emerald ash borer, an insect that–as a recent editorial in the Washington Post put it–"could do to Eastern ash trees what an Asian blight did to chestnuts in the first half of the last century–wipe them out."

   2004, Jason Van Driesche, Nature Out of Place: Biological Invasions In The Global Age

   Synonyms: EAB