We wanted to answer the burning question of why the spotted lanternfly is so common in New York City. This question is interesting to us because of the discrepancies between the concentrations of lanternflies in the Lower East Side and the concentration of trees of heaven. When we checked the iNaturalist databases, we saw that the Lower East Side does not have a large population of trees of heaven as opposed to other parts of the city. Especially since spotted lanternflies flock to these trees, we wondered about why the Lower East Side was such a popular hotspot.
This project was made by Kristina Chang, Samantha Liu, and Cornelia Murja
