winter moths

[matt_p...@comcast.net]

Hi, folks, while I've yet to see a winter moth on the Vineyard this season, there is a pretty heavy flight of what I presume are winter moths underway in at least some parts of Falmouth. I saw, very roughly, 300 yesterday during a mile-long walk west of Falmouth center shortly after sunset, and then there were about 30 clinging to the outside of the window of the room I was in for the next hour. When I was over there last Monday (11/15), it appeared the flight was just beginning.

Still getting the odd Monarch report here on the Vineyard. Haven't been out much myself.

Matt

Matt Pelikan
Oak Bluffs, MA
41.45 N 70.55 W

[George Boettner]

Hi Matt and all,

Thanks for the winter moth update on Falmouth. I have some
sticky bands in Falmouth and Yarmouth and they had not caught anything
on the Cape as of Sunday. So I will watch them this week.

We are seeing early flight in Boston, East Bridgewater, Hanson,
Hingham, Wenham and reports from all over Boston about big flights.
Weird, because our pupal traps hinted that populations might be headed
down at most of our sites so we were expecting low-moderate flight.
Hatch last year was two weeks earlier than we have ever seen it (April
3rd), and some caterpillars were three weeks ahead, pupation was a
solid two weeks early. So we may be seeing early flight now because of
the early spring season? Hard for me to know if the flight we are
seeing now will end soon- (meaning its a more moderate year), or if
this is the start of a really big long flight? Time will soon tell.

I checked some Bruce spanworm traps on the way out to North Adams
and was seeing hundreds of Bruce spanworm in those traps as well. So
may be a big year for them as well? And seeing a fair number of fall
cankerworm mating now as well, especially on the North Shore.

If anyone is wondering what you have at your porch lights now, if
you look at the lower hindwing and see a black spot in the middle of
the wing, these seem to always be Bruce spanworm. If you don't see a
spot it gets tricky, ie a certain percentage of BS lack the spot, and
winter moth lacks the spot. Feel free to send me anything you catch
and I can check the genitalia under a scope. I only need a few moths
per site, as these can be time consuming and I have a few thousand of
my own to do. Generally if you are on the Cape, or inside the 495
beltway these are likely winter moth, with a few Bruce spanworm mixed
in. I am most interested in sightings west of 495. Along Rt 2 we were
seeing winter moth as far out as Leominster but it is moving west at
about 5-8 km a year the past few years. We have also found moths in
Worcester and scattered throughout RI. It is now in 6 states (ME, NH,
MA, RI, CT and NY-Long Island). It is moving East to west along Long
Island now, we even picked up one random moth at the western end of
LI, very close to NY city. So if anyone sees moths on LI, I am very
interested in those locations.

On the encouraging note: We have recovered the winter moth
parasite, Cyzenis albicans from four of our early release sites.
Several of these sites have now gone two years since release, which
means the flies are finding each other and mating fine on their own
now. We found the flies established in Seekonk, Falmouth, Wellesley
and Wompatuck State Park so far. We suspect it is also established in
Yarmouth but we missed the timing of our collection at that site.

I was able to collect around 35,000 winter moth in British
Columbia (to collect and rear for Cyzenis flies), and I managed to
ship to US Quarantine 32,500 winter moth pupae (all reared in my motel
room in BC!). From sampling it looks like we will have around 16,000
more flies to release in spring at new sites. Things will get easier
for me when the flies are established locally so that we can collect
here at home instead of dealing with import permits and customs. Each
fly can lay thousands of eggs so the population will eventually catch
up to the winter moth...but its an overwhelming task when densities of
winter moth can reach 250,000 caterpillars per tree at our fly release
study sites!

Jeff Boettner
Plant, Soil and Insect Sciences
Room 115 Ag. Eng. Bld.
250 Natural Resources Road
UMASS-Amherst
Amherst, MA 01003

boet...@psis.umass.edu

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[bankercheryl]

Matt;

My computer has been down for several weeks but now think I have most things
fixed (finally).

Really awesome you haven't seen WM on the Vineyard!! Hope it stays this way.
We're having, what Jeff Boettner just today described when here, as another
BIG year.

Don Adams

Matt

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