INSECTS
For practical reasons, flies are included in their own section above.
Entomology is the study of insects. In this website we have divided them into easy sections such as Bees & Bumble Bees and Butterflies & Moths. You will immediately realise that this is not a clean nor technical categorisation. Certainly not the latter. But it is an easy one for most of us.
In his book The GARDEN JUNGLE or Gardening to Save the Planet, Dave Goulson laments the decline of many insects in the UK, particularly butterflies and moths. This is attributed mainly to changes in agriculture and the indesdcriminate use of pesticides and herbicides on crops including private gardens. Don't immediately reach for a can of devastating spray. This decline in turn affects the success of predatory species such as birds. Here in Scotland we have the added challenges of climate for insects. But you can be very surprised for what can be found around here.
Goulson's view is both holistic and broad. It is also down on his hands and knees. Close up where you can find an amazing array of beasties all and each with their roles in life. Each competing or sometimes even cooperating. You need to get down there close up too.
Plants and pollinators use electric fields to find each other
Pollinators and flowers can attract each other with electric fields, researchers have found. This extraordinary relationship is discussed further in the article on the NHM website, a link for which is shown below, and further discussed in the Birds Outside my Window blog.
Some insects, such as hoverflies, are able to detect flowers using these electric fields, while some flowers can use them to sense pollinators and release targeted bursts of scent to draw more of them in.
BIRDS OUTSIDE MY WINDOW - Kate St John : https://www.birdsoutsidemywindow.org/2016/07/18/bees-and-electricity/#:~:text=A%20study%20published%20in%20PNAS%20last%20May%20explains,their%20pollen%20stick%20to%20bees%20through%20static%20electricity.
THE GARDEN JUNGLE or Gardening to Save the Planet. Dave Goulson. Vintage books. 2019, ISBN 9781529116281.
INSECTS OF BRITAIN AND WESTERN EUROPE. Chinery, Mark. A Collins Guide. ISBN 000 219137 7. 1986. This is an extraorinarilly comprehensive catalogue of almost every insect, bug and butterfly that we can possibly encounter.
NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM / NHM : https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/news/2021/september/plants-and-pollinators-use-electric-fields-to-find-each-other.html
