Moths

U.S. officials will be closely watching grapes, peaches and other crops in California after a moth that can damage leaves and fruit was discovered near San Francisco, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Thursday. The light brown apple moth, native to Australia, was found in Alameda and Contra Costa counties. It was the first time it had been found in the contiguous United States.

MONTEREY, Calif. -- It started with a retired entomology professor checking the bug trap in his backyard. Now airplanes are swooping over the Monterey Peninsula for three nights, spraying 60 square miles of neighborhoods and farms with a substance that triggers gender confusion in a destructive species of moth. Spraying is also set for Santa Cruz County, and, if necessary, could later be used elsewhere.

Northern California activists fighting aerial spraying to stop a destructive moth say they're heartened by a judge's decision to temporarily halt the state program. Earlier this week, Monterey County Superior Court Judge Robert A. O'Farrell issued an order preventing further spraying to stop the light-brown apple moth, saying he needed more information about a spray component that could have "potentially harmful propensities."

A Monterey County judge Friday lifted his temporary ban on controversial aerial spraying for a destructive moth, concluding that the spray does not contain a potentially harmful ingredient and that the state has a solid plan to investigate health complaints that might come up. After the first round of spraying for the light brown apple moth over the Monterey peninsula last month, more than 100 people complained of symptoms that included sore throats, rashes and headaches.

SACRAMENTO -- One of the Golden State's most notorious invasive pests -- the crop-devouring Medfly -- has reappeared in Los Angeles County for the first time in half a dozen years, state officials announced Thursday. Authorities said they expected to soon establish a quarantine zone on the Palos Verdes Peninsula -- the site of the discovery -- and begin stepped-up treatment to kill a pest long feared as among the most worrisome threats to the state's agricultural economy.

Harnessing the electrical impulses of sight, scientists have built a robot guided by the brain and eyes of a moth. As the moth tracks the world around it, an electrode in its tiny brain captures faint electrical impulses that a computer translates into action. The moth, immobilized inside a plastic tube, was mounted on a 6-inch-tall wheeled robot. When the moth moved its eyes to the right, the robot turned in that direction.

California's Department of Food and Agriculture plans to continue efforts to eliminate an invasive moth that it says poses a risk to fruit and ornamental plants, despite protests from scientists and environmentalists who say the measures are unnecessary. Moth detection has led to quarantines in 3,500 square miles in 15 counties, including Los Angeles, causing millions of dollars in lost revenue, said Michael Jarvis, deputy secretary for public affairs at the California Department of Food and Agriculture.

[ HYALOPHORA EURYALUS ] Ranging from the coast to the Sierra Nevada crest, these huge, spectacular moths startle observers when they suddenly appear near nighttime lights for a few days each spring. Stimulated by longer days and warmer weather, large numbers of adults emerge from their elaborate silken cocoons at the same time, which maximizes their mating opportunities.