Destructive beetle intercepted in pineapple shipment from Costa Rica to U.S.

Officials at a Southern California port said they found a rare, destructive beetle in a shipment of pineapple from Costa Rica, according to The Associated Press.

A statement from U.S. Customs and Border Protection on Friday said that agriculture specialists at the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex captured the live adult beetle. The only other time the insect — strongylaspis corticarius Ancita — has been intercepted in the U.S. was in Miami in 1999, the AP reported.

The beetle, a cousin of the Asian long-horned beetle, has larvae that larvae consumes wood, bark, stems and plant fluids, posing a serious threat to the U.S. forest and timber industry.