12/12/2023 0 Comments Are there lightning bugs in florida![]() The lack of older data makes it "unclear to what degree we're experiencing an arthropocalypse," said University of Illinois entomologist May Berenbaum. "We don't know how much we're losing if we don't know how much we have," said University of Hawaii entomologist Helen Spafford. Scientists say similar comparisons can't be done elsewhere, because similar bug counts weren't done decades ago. It was one of the few, if only, broad studies. Last year, a study that found an 82 percent mid-summer decline in the number and weight of bugs captured in traps in 63 nature preserves in Germany compared with 27 years earlier. Now, "there's no insects on that sheet," he said. There's a big insect trap sheet under black light that decades ago would be covered with bugs. University of Nevada, Reno, researcher Lee Dyer and his colleagues have been looking at insects at the La Selva Biological Station in Costa Rica since 1991. This year, he said, "was kind of disappointing, I thought." University of Florida urban entomologist Philip Koehler said he's seen a recent decrease in lovebugs - insects that fly connected and coated Florida's windshields in the 1970s and 1980s. One study estimated a 14 percent decline in ladybugs in the United States and Canada from 1987 to 2006. Research has shown dwindling individual species in specific places, including lightning bugs, moths and bumblebees. ![]() (Today's cars also are more aerodynamic, so bugs are more likely to slip past them and live to buzz about it.) Researchers are quick to point out that such exercises aren't good scientific experiments, since they don't include control groups or make comparisons with past results. Several scientists have conducted their own tests with windshields, car grilles and headlights, and most notice few squashed bugs. Baby Boomers will probably notice the difference, Tallamy said. Wilson recommends everyday people do it themselves to see. The un-scientific experiment is called the windshield test. It hit home last year when he drove from suburban Boston to Vermont and decided to count how many bugs hit his windshield. The 89-year-old Wilson recalled that he once frolicked in a "Washington alive with insects, especially butterflies." Now, "the flying insects are virtually gone."
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