A common bumblebee;
Credit: natur&ëmwelt
Natur&ëmwelt, a leading nature conservation NGO in Luxembourg has announced the results of the second edition of its insect census.
From 1 to 9 June 2024, the natur&ëmwelt census campaign “Méi wéi Beien! Ziel mat!” (more than bees! Count with us!) took place. Around 80 censuses were carried out in Luxembourg's gardens, parks and meadows for the occasion.
With this census campaign, the non-profit organisation explained it hoped to be able to assess the numbers of species frequently encountered in residential areas over the years and to highlight population trends, such as increases or decreases. The focus of this census campaign was on species living around the home and garden, such as hoverflies, bumblebees or ladybugs. A total of twelve species were counted. In addition, natur&ëmwelt also wants to raise awareness among the general public with this campaign. Participants were asked to spend an hour observing what is swarming around the house and thus improve the entomological knowledge of the population, according to the motto "you only protect what you know".
During the second count, the weather was unfortunately not ideal for seeing many animals. Nevertheless, some figures could be collected. The common bumblebee took first place at the expense of the belted hoverfly, which was counted 202 times most often. Since bumblebees are particularly well adapted to cold weather, this could have influenced the figures, natur&ëmwelt confirmed. The seven-spotted ladybird took third place with 133 observations.
In terms of frequency, the first three were very close to each other. The common bumblebee and the seven-spotted ladybird were observed in 61.3% of the gardens. The belted hoverfly was seen in 60% of the plots. The graph below shows the most frequent species (from left to right) and the average number of individuals present in each garden (when they were present).
