Public participation in insect research through the use of pheromones
Issue 366 | Page 57 | Published Sep 2017
Description
In a project to determine the UK distribution of a conservation-status beetle Elater ferrugineus, 300 volunteers were recruited and supplied with traps containing a female pheromone that is an effective attractant for adult males. The occurrence and distribution of the insect were extended from previously estimated values and shown to be limited to a south-eastern area of the UK. In an attempt to account for the distribution, it was compared with a number of factors including climatic and habitat suitability. Of these, a major proportion of the variation in the distribution of E. ferrugineus was explained by temperature, that is, the beetle is restricted to an area delineated by a mean maximum summer temperature of greater than 21 °C.
More from this issue
Set up in 2011 in the UK, Soapbox Science is reaching across the globe, highlighting women in science and the research they carry out in science,...
Students make and test a seemingly impossible material made from ice and sawdust that had been developed for possible emergency use during the...
Over the course of the last few years, clinical pharmacists and scientists at the University of Brighton have developed a learning activity that...