iPhone users in the UK are being asked to help save the conker tree.
Horse Chestnut trees are being threatened by an invasion of a moth, which causes leaf rot, and has now spread to half of England.
The organisers of the appeal, at Bristol and Hull universities, want you to download an iPhone app to help track the spread.
Researchers say the moth invasion started in London in 2002:
Since then it has spread at a rate of 40 to 60 km per year and now covers half of the country, including much of south-central England, East Anglia, the Midlands and most recently Yorkshire and Cornwall.
Experts at the Universities of Bristol and Hull are now asking for the public’s help in monitoring this spread through a combination of new technology and old-fashioned science.
Ultimately, they want to understand the invasion better with a view to combating the damage caused by the alien moth.
A special mobile phone app has been devised to allow people to upload a photo of any horse chestnut leaves they come across, either with or without the indication of alien moths, which will pin-point their location and help to build up a picture of which areas are suffering from the infection.
Participants are also asked to collect a leaf from an infected tree and put it into a plastic bag before documenting the insects which emerge later in the month. This is to gauge how many are natural pest controllers, in the form of tiny parasitic wasps, that had killed the developing moths.Again, here's a link for the iPhone app.
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