Tag: insects

NE North America | About 94% of wild bee and native plant species networks lost

Posted on July 29, 2020July 28, 2020 by Charlie

A recent report from Toronto’s York University titled “Wild bee declines linked to plant-pollinator network changes and plant species introductions” was published in the journal Insect Conservation and Diversity last month. This report was perfectly summarised by EurekaAlert! under the heading “About 94 per cent of wild bee and native plant species networks lost, York study finds”. Their opening sentence is seriously concerning, given all that we now understand about the importance of pollinators and insects in general.

Buglife | B Lines

Posted on July 27, 2020July 27, 2020 by Charlie

Insect decline is inextricably linked with pesticides and habitat loss. The latter also leads to habitat fragmentation, pockets that are no longer linked and which have less species diversity. The charity Buglife has proposed setting up a nationwide system of insect ‘corridors’ they are calling ‘B Lines’. As they put it “We need to restore our countryside. We need to increase the number of wildflower-rich places, and we need to make sure that these areas are large enough to provide everything that pollinators need to thrive. We also need to join the dots. And that is where B-Lines comes in.”

Understanding UK Insect Decline and Extinctions: A Government Briefing

Posted on April 27, 2020 by Charlie

Hopefully we’ve largely moved past the kneejerk reaction to insects that were common not that long ago – “Ugh” and “Kill it” – and now understand that insects are a critical part of all ecosystems. They are not only beautifully evolved, fascinating animals, but they are – in the words of the charity Buglife – the ‘small things that run the planet‘. They pollinate, break down waste and recycle it, feed a huge number of other insects and a huge number of other animals (from birds and amphibians to fish and mammals). While the rest of life on this planet – as our current lockdown has proved – would get along fine without us, it would quickly fall apart without insects.

Coul Links development refused

Posted on February 25, 2020March 4, 2020 by Charlie

A positive story for a change – and one that may have gone under many people’s radar : a planned ‘luxury’ golf course development on Coul Links, a beautiful, natural coastal dune system to the immediate south of Loch Fleet National Nature Reserve in East Sutherland, Scotland, has been refused. Why, writes Charlie Moores, was the development turned down so late in the day? Could the government in Scotland understand that the public are just fed up with our most precious places being threatened by developments that benefit so few but whose losses are felt by so many…

Western Monarch | Functionally extinct?

Posted on February 17, 2020February 17, 2020 by Charlie

The Monarch butterfly Danaus plexippus is one of North America’s most iconic species, “as American as apple pie'”. It is also, writes Charlie Moores, in danger of extinction – particularly the western population which has lost a staggering 99% of its numbers since the 1980s.

Bumblebees – canaries in the countryside?

Posted on February 9, 2020July 28, 2020 by Charlie

A headline in the UK’s The Guardian this week, stated that “Bumblebees’ decline points to mass extinction”. It was triggered by a report in the journal Science which analysed long-term data for 66 bumblebee species across both North America and Europe and concluded that “increasing frequencies of temperatures that exceed historically observed tolerances help explain widespread bumblebee species decline”. Should that matter, writes Charlie Moores, to us?

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