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 Editorials | Environmental | February 2007 
Cactus-Eating Moth Reaches Mexico
 Mark Stevenson - Associated Press
Experts say a moth whose larvae threaten to decimate Mexico's emblematic flat-leafed cactus has invaded the country's mainland for the first time, something authorities have feared for decades.
Lab reports indicated that at least one moth trapped in the resort city of Cancun since January is a South American 'nopal moth,' a species nonnative to Mexico detected last year off the coast on Isla Mujeres, said Hector Sanchez, Mexico's director of plant safety.
But Sanchez said that because it is smaller than textbook descriptions, the specimen and five others that could be nopal moths have been sent to a U.S. lab for identification.
In countries like Mexico - where flat-leafed Opuntia cactuses known as 'nopales' are a food source, an important part of the ecosystem and a national emblem - the moth poses a major threat.
About 50,000 Mexican farm families make a living from the $100 million annual market for boiled, tender cactus leaves and prickly pear fruit.
Alma Solis, a U.S. Department of Agriculture entomologist who will test the samples, said 'it looks like it probably is' the cactus-eating species based on photos.
Sanchez said the moths probably flew across the narrow strait that separates the island from Mexico's Caribbean coast or caught a ride on a ferry.
Known as Cactoblastis Cactorum and native to Argentina, the moth was exported to Australia, South Africa and islands throughout the Caribbean starting in the 1920s to eradicate cacti that occupied valuable farm land.
Tests on the Cancun samples are expected to take about a week, but Sanchez said authorities in Mexico are taking no chances. Teams have been sent to search homes on Isla Mujeres for infected cacti and are examining Cancun's hotel zone, the first mainland location where the moths were detected.
Mexico could be facing a decades-long fight to keep the moth away from the vast plains of cactus in central Mexico and the U.S. Southwest.
'We may be able to eradicate this outbreak, but, unfortunately, just as it came this time, it could come again,' Sanchez said. |
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