Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 July 2016
Although 2000 AD is but 20 years away, even so this is a long period in terms of the rate of recent technological development. My remarks about the possible future state of this subject must therefore be somewhat speculative. The projections will be based, however, on research carried out over the past 10 years, and I hope this will provide an element of usefulness.
I shall refer to both agricultural and forestry crops. Our most extensive agricultural experience has been with cotton and its pests in the Sudan, particularly the cotton bollworm moth; and with cereals in the UK, particularly cereal aphids. Our forestry experience has been with softwoods and the spruce budworm moth in eastern Canada, and with lodge-pole pine forests and the pine beauty moth in Scotland. In terms of techniques our experience has ranged over ground-based and airborne radars, a full range of ground and airborne meteorological instrumentation, the study of insect flight behaviour by sensitive infra-red opto-electronic devices, the turbulent dispersal of spray droplets and their deposition on foliage and insects, the study and quantification of insect population dynamics, and the use of many biological techniques, including suction traps and light traps.