Want to explore animals in your garden? It helps to build a catching instrument! Ants and other small insects are particularly difficult to catch with your hands, especially without hurting them. Researchers use an aspirator to catch small insects. The insects get into a cup without you touching them!
Imagine the aspirator is like a special insect vacuum cleaner. Two tubes are attached to a cup. You use the tube with a net attached to the end and suck in air. The suction creates a vacuum, in other words there is less air in the cup than before. To compensate for this negative pressure, air flows into the cup via the second tube. Hold the end of the tube over an insect. The air flow traps the animal in the cup. The great thing is that you catch it without touching it!
Naturalists use trapping instruments to identify animals in a habitat.
It is exciting to find out which and how many different species
species can be found in your own garden, forest or park.
Make your own aspirator and find out!
Good to know!
It is important that you release the animals back where you found them at the end of your observation. Do not collect more than one animal in your container, as they could injure each other.
Biodiversity, i.e. the variety of animal, plant and fungal species, is an exciting field of research. It examines how many different species occur in a habitat. We are particularly pleased about the high diversity of insects. They pollinate flowers from which fruit such as apples, pears etc. can develop. In general, a habitat with a high level of diversity is better protected from drought and other disruptive factors.
At the ISTA campus, there is a team of students, researchers and other ISTA employees working on sustainability issues. One project is researching biodiversity on the campus grounds. Anyone can help and enter the species found in the “iNaturalist” app.
Biodiversity, that is the variety of animal, plant and fungal species, is an exciting field of research. It examines how many different species occur in a habitat. Insects in in particular are highly diverse. They pollinate flowers from which fruit such as apples, pears etc. can develop. In general, a habitat with a high level of diversity is better protected from drought and other disruptive factors.
At the ISTA campus, there is a team of students, researchers and other ISTA employees working on sustainability issues. One project is researching biodiversity on the campus grounds. Anyone can help and enter the species found in the “iNaturalist” app.
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