I am interested in insect population ecology, and how insect herbivore populations affect their host plants in the broader forest ecosystem. I work on the winter moth (Operophtera brumata), which is a invasive defoliator in New England. In comparison to other invasive lepidopteran defoliators, such as the gypsy moth (Lymantria dispar), winter moth rarely defoliates its host trees very heavily, even when at high density. I am examining density dependent dispersal during the larval stage of winter moth, which will help to explain why larval densities seem not to be primarily resource limited, without any apparent extrinsic regulation.