Spruce Budworm Moth Flight and Storms: Case Study of a Cold Front System

Abstract

Field studies in New Brunswick on the dispersal and redistribution of night-flying spruce budworm moths have made particular use of detailed synoptic analysis, weather radar (ground and airborne), and airborne Doppler wind-finding; moth-sampling by light-traps, pheromone-traps and aircraft-trapping; insect-detecting radar; and experimental forest spraying. By these means moths have been recorded arriving in very large numbers, with mesoscale wind systems associated with rainstorms. A case study is presented of such an influx in western New Brunswick in association with wind shifts and weather at an active cold front in July 1975.