The wake of an insect pheromone trap

Male moths find distant calling females in heterogenous natural environments by flying upwind during pheromone plume tracking using general principles of optomotor anemotaxis. In agricultural field applications, pheromone lure-traps leveraging this behavior are employed in order to catch and count local male moth presence as a proxy for pest population statistics to inform timely intervention strategies. Recent pseudo-randomized lure-trap studies of the corn earworm moth around the perimeter of a corn field in upstate New York have shown yet-explained variability in catch count, with directional wind bias as an apparent contributing factor. More information regarding the downstream evolution of wind-driven pheromone plumes emanating from the synthetic lure source is required, however, prior to properly framing the effect of wind in capture statistics. This presentation explores observed trap count variability from the perspective of the spatial structure of plumes in their dynamic evolution downstream from two commonly used lure-trap designs subject to simulated field wind conditions using a multi-source fan array wind tunnel.