Since 2014 I have watched forests and farms struggle against the spotted lanternfly. As I saw my community struggle I decided to take action. I organized “scraping parties,” where I taught others the dangers of the spotted lanternfly and how to scrape their egg masses. Additionally, I created a YouTube video and many flyers that teach about the importance of eradicating the spotted lanternfly. I even planted over 600 grapevines at a local vineyard, to make up for the ones lost due to the spotted lanternfly… I changed the focus of my project to determine the feeding pattern of the spotted lanternfly, using phloem sap from the spotted lanternflies’ host plants. I extracted the phloem sap from host plants and tested their monosaccharide concentration using High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). By doing so I discovered that spotted lanternflies prefer to feed on plants with a higher concentration of sucrose and a low concentration of fructose and glucose.While testing the monosaccharide concentration in host plants to discover the spotted lanternflies feeding pattern, I began to wonder were there other patterns that spotted lanternflies possess? … In order to look for more patterns I tested the spotted lanternflies on a molecular level and compared my results to results in China, India, and Vietnam. I discovered that the spotted lanternflies in the United States had the same mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) as spotted lanternflies in Asia…

Read More

• Biology