What is the gypsy moth discrimination problem?
The three stages of the gypsy moth life cycle of which concerned citizens are commonly aware are the egg mass, the larva and the adult male. The adult female is more rarely seen because when it emerges from its pupa in the crotch of a tree limb it remains close to the pupal caste and starts emitting a pheromone which drifts with the breeze downwind signaling males that there is a female upwind ready to mate. The stage which is most frequently monitored by North American county, state and federal agencies is the adult male, which can be lured during its mating flight to a trap using an artificial female pheromone, GYPLURE. Tens of thousands of these pheromone traps are set each summer. The traps call gypsy moth males from large distances, trapping them and providing population biologists inexpensive estimates of the surrounding gypsy moth population size. It would be convenient if this cheap, effective and well established monitoring program could be used to help us to recognise when a
