新西兰英语 261 Hadda Beetle

　　When you arrive in New Zealand, people from Biosecurity check that do not bring any food with you. Because we are an island country, we try to keep out pests from other countries. We are not always successful though. Listen to September 25th 2008 for more about control of pests.
The Ministry¹ of Agriculture and Fisheries (MAF) says that it cannot control the Hadda Beetle² which was found in Auckland in January. It is already too late to kill all beetles³. MAF thinks the Hadda Beetle has probably been in New Zealand around four years and nobody knew about it.
The beetle comes from Asia and the Pacific. Perhaps it came here along with some cargo⁴. The caterpillar⁵ is pale yellow with black hairs. The adult beetle is about 10mm long, is yellow/orange in colour with about 26 spots on its back. It’s a bit like a lady bird, but the lady bird is red. Both the caterpillar and beetle feed on the leaves of tomatoes, potatoes and aubergines. They scrape the surface of the leaf until it looks like a lace pattern.
MAF has pulled out plants which have the caterpillar or beetle on it and sprayed in the area but it is too expensive to do more than that. It could cost $50m each year for four years to get rid of the Hadda Beetle.

1 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

2 beetle   

n.甲虫，近视眼的人

参考例句：

• A firefly is a type of beetle.萤火虫是一种甲虫。
• He saw a shiny green beetle on a leaf.我看见树叶上有一只闪闪发光的绿色甲虫。

3 beetles   

n.甲虫( beetle的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Beetles bury pellets of dung and lay their eggs within them. 甲壳虫把粪粒埋起来，然后在里面产卵。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• This kind of beetles have hard shell. 这类甲虫有坚硬的外壳。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

4 cargo   

n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物

参考例句：

• The ship has a cargo of about 200 ton.这条船大约有200吨的货物。
• A lot of people discharged the cargo from a ship.许多人从船上卸下货物。

5 caterpillar   

n.毛虫，蝴蝶的幼虫

参考例句：

• A butterfly is produced by metamorphosis from a caterpillar.蝴蝶是由毛虫脱胎变成的。
• A caterpillar must pass through the cocoon stage to become a butterfly.毛毛虫必须经过茧的阶段才能变成蝴蝶。