Frankfurt/Main (dpa) – It has a remarkably long neck and perfectly spotless wings – The black-necked camel fly (Venustoraphidia nigricollis) will be the ‘Insect of 2022’ https://www.sueddeutsche.de/wissen/. “This was for a long time true of the species as one of the rarest of the camel neck flies – until it was recognized that the adults with a distinctive black color are found mostly in the tree canopy,” Thomas Schmidt, director of the footprint of the German Senckenberg Institute of Entomology in Mönchberg and Chair of the Board of Trustees explained on Monday. Insect year.
In any case, the six to 15 mm long camel neck flies (Raphidioptera) are among the poorest of all insects. Only about 250 species of camel neck flies are known worldwide, Schmidt said. “In Central Europe there are 16 species described so far – one of which is our insect of the year.” It was completely different in the time of the dinosaurs: from the fossil finds it can be concluded that insects were found in much greater diversity at that time.
One particular example of the appearance of camel neck flies is said in central Vienna: surrounded by bustling traffic, two species of camel neck flies settled in the pine trees of Maria-Theresien-Platz in the Austrian capital.
The scientist reports that the annual mass presence of the skinny bugs around a centuries-old farm in Upper Austria is unique worldwide. A species introduced from the Mediterranean has settled here at an altitude of 800 m, and large numbers of its sexually mature animals can be observed during the mating season from May to July.
The Insect of the Year has been declared annually since 1999. The campaign aims to draw attention to the uses and threats to the species. This year, the Danish Mayfly (Ephemera danica) is considered the insect of the year.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 211129-99-185641 / 2
“Alcohol buff. Troublemaker. Introvert. Student. Social media lover. Web ninja. Bacon fan. Reader.”