The paper is now focussed on the needs of the intended audience. The first paragraph provides all of the essential background. The purpose and scope remain in the second paragraph. An overview of methods, results, and discussion rounds out the third paragraph.
I have dropped 14 references cited. General biology, references to other crops or trapping methods, etc., were not necessary or in line with the purpose of the article, and I have removed them. The sentences have been rewritten to the active voice, first person plural. Jargon and excess words have been trimmed or replaced. I'm ready to go on to Methods.
The Corn earworm (CEW), Heliothis zea (Boddie), is the most destructive pest of silking sweet corn, Zea mays L., in North America. It does not winter in New England but immigrates from the south each year. Growers use pheromone baited insect traps to detect the annual arrival, to estimate CEW abundance, and to decide whether to apply insecticides (Adams and Boucher 1988, Ferro and Weber 1988).
We have used pheromones in CEW management programs since 1985 and have observed that different pheromones vary significantly in their durability and specificity as CEW attractants. Traps of different designs also seem to vary in their ability to catch earworms. Because spray decisions depend on numbers drawn to pheromone baited traps, trap related variability may lead growers to make wrong decisions. Unfortunately, there are no national standards governing the performance of lures or traps. This paper describes a field bioassay which we used to assess performance.
We evaluated commercial CEW pheromone lures and pheromone baited traps for attractiveness and specificity, ease of use, and cost. The study, which took place in 1987, involved three states -- Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. We compared numbers caught in field tests using combinations of four pheromones and four traps. Some combinations were clearly more effective than others, reinforcing the need for the establishment of standards.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
...(The Introduction as Published)