Well, this is disturbing. The Guardian reports that over the past 25 years, 75% of all flying insects in German nature reserves have disappeared. While it’s not certain if this finding holds true worldwide, it has caused a number of scientists to reflect, “you know, it’s been a long time since my windshield was covered in bug splatters.”
In fact, we may not even need this book anymore: That Gunk on Your Car: A Unique Guide to the Insects of North America. That’s a real shame, not only because it’s incredible that anyone wrote that book, but also because the entire ecosystem depends on insects for food and pollination.
For a lengthier discussion of the same German study (and, in my opinion, a better graphic on the insect population decrease), you may also be interested in this Science Magazine article. Who knew I would one day be getting all misty-eyed for bug splatter?
0
This reminds me of a report about bugs in the Everglades decreasing due to noise pollution from gas compressors. I didn’t know they were so sensitive. https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/noise-pollution-from-gas-compressors-changes-abundance-of-insects-spiders/
Fascinating — and also scary. But it makes sense: if you depend on noise to find a mate or otherwise communicate, you won’t hang out for a long time around a noisy gas compressor. This would make a great post all on its own. Would you want to write a post? I also found this really neat infographic on animals and noise pollution: https://www.science.org.au/curious/noise-pollution-and-animals, so if you don’t want to write something, maybe I’ll write something on that. 🙂