Data to support publication figures and animation scripts at GitHub: Modeling weather-driven long-distance dispersal of spruce budworm moths (Choristoneura fumiferana)

Long-term studies of insect populations in the North American boreal forest have shown the vital importance of long-distance dispersal to the maintenance and expansion of insect outbreaks. In this work, we extend several concepts established previously in an empirically-based dispersal flight model with recent work on the physiology and behavior of the adult eastern spruce budworm (SBW) moth, Choristoneura fumiferana (Clem.). An outbreak of defoliating SBW in Quebec, ongoing since the mid-2000s, already covers millions of hectares of forests in eastern Canada and threatens to spread into neighboring areas through annual summertime episodes of long-distance dispersal. Such flight events in favorable conditions frequently include billions of SBW moths dispersing in the warm atmospheric boundary layer, typically starting around sunset and often lasting through several hours of wind-driven transport over hundreds of kilometers. Successful SBW dispersal to possibly distant host forest areas ...