ROMULUS, Mich. (WILX) - U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials say they’ve stopped a potentially destructive species from entering the country at Detroit Metro Airport.

CBP agriculture specialists made a “first-in-nation” interception of a “potentially destructive” bark beetle from the Ivory Coast last February, officials said in a press release Thuirsday.

The roughly 3-millimeter beetle was found within partially dry bark brought for medicinal purposes during a routine inspection of a passenger at DTW in transit to Texas, officials said.

Local CBP officials identified this as the Afrotropical genus Ctonoxylon, while local U.S. Department of Agriculture officials were able to further identify it as Ctonoxylon spinifer Eggers, which was confirmed on Oct. 16.

USDA database records

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