We have loads of observational data on monarch butterflies’ flights. We have a lot of studies doing experiments on what governs direction, speed or length of a butterflies’ flight. What is missing is a predictive model to tie these parameters with the observational data. This gap is magnified for lesser known pests that directly impact the yields of crops. The R package, biosplit tries to fill this gap using a biological and physical model. Simple parameters can be fed into the program and a year’s worth of migration is simulated using a passive dispersal model called HYSPLIT from NOAA. Some of the output that can be generated can be seen in this recently published paper.

J. K. Westbrook, R. N. Nagoshi, R. L. Meagher, and S. J. Fleischer, S. Jairam (2015), Modeling Seasonal Migration of Fall Armyworm Moths, International Journal of Biometeorology, doi: 10.1007/s00484-015-1022-x