You're listening to life kit from NPR.
Hey, everybody, it's Marielle.
We begin today's show with an ode to a fashion superstar who first stepped on the scene here in America back in 2014.
And these days, I mean, they're everywhere.
My goodness, they just give you this deep, high fashion look to them.
Two yellow stripes on the sides of their body.
There's a big burst of red in the middle.
There's some white going down the sides that almost kind of look like eyes when their wings are extended.
It is just incredible.
They are stunning.
They are refined.
They are the moment.
They are a spotted lanternfly.
Yeah, a bug.
They're a bug.
And that commentator was Sammy Ramsey.
He's a professor of entomology at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
These spotted lanternflies are some of the most gorgeous insects you will ever see.
And thats one of the reasons why its so sad that they are indeed invasive species.
An invasive species is a creature that shows up in a region of the world that its not native to and competes with us for resources or in some way causes harm to humans or the environment.