The gypsy moth caterpillar defoliates forests and kills trees around the world. This photo shows two varieties of adult gypsy moths. Females of the Asian variety [ top row, with female on the left ] can fly, whereas North American females can't....[More]
INVASIVE PESTS:
The gypsy moth caterpillar defoliates forests and kills trees around the world. This photo shows two varieties of adult gypsy moths. Females of the Asian variety [top row, with female on the left] can fly, whereas North American females can't. U.S. scientists are worried that, if introduced here, the Asian moths might breed with the local population and accelerate the expansion of the gypsy moth's range. Note the longer, broader wings on the Asian female, compared with those of the North American strain [bottom row, female on left].
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Photo courtesy USDA
INVADER: An Asian gypsy moth caterpillar, or larva, the stage at which the species is responsible for eating the leaves off trees. The caterpillars come in a variety of sizes and colors. [Link to this slide] Photo courtesy USDA
WINGSPAN: A majority of the adult females from a European hybrid strain in Poland have the longer wings required to fly. [Link to this slide] Photo courtesy USDA
TREE-BOUND: The Portuguese hybrid female has shorter wings and can't fly. The nonflyers tend to stay close to the place where they emerged from their pupal stage. [Link to this slide] Photo courtesy USDA
TAKING MEASURE: A U.S. Forest Service researcher, using a caliper, measures the wing spread of an adult female gypsy moth. Of the Asian variety, she has the wing size and muscles required to fly. [Link to this slide] Photo courtesy USDA
TAKEOFF:
U.S. Forest Service researchers bred nonflying North American with flying Russian gypsy moths and discovered that some of their offspring could fly. Shown here, two hybrid females achieve flight in a Forest Service lab in Ansonia, Conn....[More]
TAKEOFF:
U.S. Forest Service researchers bred nonflying North American with flying Russian gypsy moths and discovered that some of their offspring could fly. Shown here, two hybrid females achieve flight in a Forest Service lab in Ansonia, Conn. Female moths tend to flock at dusk and are attracted to lights. In the lab, the lights were turned down to simulate dusk and these females headed for the light fixture on the ceiling.
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Photo courtesy USDA
FLIPPED:
Gypsy moths need wing muscles to aid them in flight. In this photo, a Forest Service researcher holds a hybrid female on her back. If she has the muscle strength to fly, she'll be able to flip herself over with just one or two flaps of her wings....[More]
FLIPPED:
Gypsy moths need wing muscles to aid them in flight. In this photo, a Forest Service researcher holds a hybrid female on her back. If she has the muscle strength to fly, she'll be able to flip herself over with just one or two flaps of her wings.
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Photo courtesy USDA
FLAPPER: The same female hybrid as in the previous photo flutters her wings in an attempt to right herself, an indication that she may have the muscle strength to fly. [Link to this slide] Photo courtesy USDA
UNDER THE HOOD: Melody Keena, a U.S. Forest Service entomologist, studies gypsy moth egg masses. These eggs are stored on rolls of paper in the Forest Service's quarantine lab in Ansonia, Conn. [Link to this slide] Photo by Julia C. Mead
STASHED: This photo shows Keena opening a plastic container of gypsy moth eggs stored in the Ansonia quarantine lab. [Link to this slide] Photo by Julia C. Mead
ON DISPLAY:
These are pinned specimens showing the generations involved in the breeding experiments that crossed Asian and North American gypsy moths. The light-colored moths at the top are females and the dark ones below are male....[More]
ON DISPLAY:
These are pinned specimens showing the generations involved in the breeding experiments that crossed Asian and North American gypsy moths. The light-colored moths at the top are females and the dark ones below are male. In the first column on the left are adults from far eastern Russia, categorized within the flying Asian strain because their females fly. Those were bred with the nonflying North Americans (specifically, from North Carolina) in the fourth column. The second and third columns are their offspring--the first generation of hybrids. In the seventh column, at the extreme right, are North Americans from Massachusetts. Those were bred with the Russians, too, producing the hybrids in the fifth and sixth columns. Note the bicolored one in the center of the seventh column. That's known as a gynandromorph, meaning it is half female and half male. Those are rare, about one in every 10,000 individual moths.
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Photo by Julia C. Mead
TOUCHED DOWN: Russian females of the Asian strain are shown resting here on a building in a far eastern Russian port city during a 2005 outbreak. [Link to this slide] Photo courtesy USDA
COLLABORATION:
A New Zealand scientist, John Handiside, on the left, training colleagues from the Russian forest service to monitor gypsy moth traps in the forests around Nadhodka, a shipping port in far eastern Russia....[More]
COLLABORATION:
A New Zealand scientist, John Handiside, on the left, training colleagues from the Russian forest service to monitor gypsy moth traps in the forests around Nadhodka, a shipping port in far eastern Russia.
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Photo courtesy USDA
YES! Send me a free issue of Scientific American with no obligation to continue the subscription. If I like it, I will be billed for the one-year subscription.
This article gives a really great perspective on just how easy it is to import pests from one country to another -- something we just never think about in our daily hunger for cheap goods. And given that we are a global economy, one country's pest problems can easily become another's. Anyone who's lived through the devastating effects of a gypsy moth infestation will appreciated the depth this article goes through.
Who knew? I applaud the editors for publishing a piece on a subject that could easily have slipped under the radar, and shouldn't. I "enjoyed" this article on the gypsy moth immigration in the sense that I'd like to think that we can do something about it before it adds to our other import problems. Well-researched and well-written.
Kudos to the editors for publishing this piece on a topic that might otherwise have slipped under the radar. Well-researched and well-written, and IU'd like to think there is something we can do about this other form of immigration.
Who would know? I clap for the editors for writing an article on a topic that could easily have slid under the radar, and should not. I "loved" this subject on the vampire moth deportation in the sense that I'd like to believe that we can do anything about it before it clasps onto our other deport problems. Well-found and well-published. immigration
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6 Comments
Add CommentGreat, very thorough story on an extremely important subject.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis article gives a really great perspective on just how easy it is to import pests from one country to another -- something we just never think about in our daily hunger for cheap goods. And given that we are a global economy, one country's pest problems can easily become another's. Anyone who's lived through the devastating effects of a gypsy moth infestation will appreciated the depth this article goes through.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisgood
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWho knew? I applaud the editors for publishing a piece on a subject that could easily have slipped under the radar, and shouldn't. I "enjoyed" this article on the gypsy moth immigration in the sense that I'd like to think that we can do something about it before it adds to our other import problems. Well-researched and well-written.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisKudos to the editors for publishing this piece on a topic that might otherwise have slipped under the radar. Well-researched and well-written, and IU'd like to think there is something we can do about this other form of immigration.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWho would know? I clap for the editors for writing an article on a topic that could easily have slid under the radar, and should not. I "loved" this subject on the vampire moth deportation in the sense that I'd like to believe that we can do anything about it before it clasps onto our other deport problems. Well-found and well-published.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisimmigration