Ginger is key ingredient in recipe for conserving stag beetles
Monday, January 10, 2011 - 05:31
in Biology & Nature
The humble ginger root could be the key to conserving the UK's largest and most spectacular terrestrial beetle the stag beetle. Ecologists from Royal Holloway, University of London and the University of York have developed a series of new methods to monitor stag beetle numbers including ginger lures to trap adult beetles and tiny microphones to detect sounds made by the larvae in their underground nests. Conservation efforts have been hampered until now because ecologists lacked a reliable way of monitoring stag beetle numbers.