Using GIS to Predict the New Range Boundary of an Old Pest Insect

The use of GIS to gather and analyze insect population data in changing habitats is presented. By taking a larval time travel approach, standard dendrochronology techniques to date larval scars of species of longhorned beetles on living trees are used to determine the exact year that a species was within a given tree. By combining this information with detailed studies of the trees, forest habitat, and forest maps collected over the same period by other Purdue University researchers, it is possible to correlate changes in the borer prevalence and occurrence with changes to the forest habitat