Insects All Around Us

February 5, 2024 2:14 PM

For the past 15 years, a crew of volunteers has been going out to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center every week to count all the crawling, flying critters they can find. So far they've identified almost 3,000 species of insect including over 50 bees, 345 flies, and over 500 different beetles. (SLTexasObserver)

Author: Kit O'Connell.

posted by DirtyOldTown (5 comments total)

The Texas Observer is one of the few magazines I read front to back. (Disclaimer, I live in Texas!) It's a steal at $3 a month.
posted by tofu_crouton at 2:17 PM on February 5 [3 favorites]

Lady Bird was an admirable first lady.
posted by Czjewel at 5:32 PM on February 5 [1 favorite]

"God has an inordinate fondness for beetles." JBS Haldane, who trotted out the quip on the regular in several different forms.
It's all very well to bring folks out in the wild with jeweller's loups to get a feel for insect diversity; but there's an analysis to be done comparing [data!] the species number and abundance in 2010 vs 2023.
posted by BobTheScientist at 4:47 AM on February 6

My favorite bit was that it's a pretty average day when they identify at least one new species.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 5:32 AM on February 6 [2 favorites]

I presume here is Valerie Bugh's homepage mentioned in the article. Pretty delightfully old school
posted by Press Butt.on to Check at 8:03 AM on February 6