Gravel Pits Are An Unexpected Butterfly Paradise
Thursday, March 15, 2012 - 10:40
in Biology & Nature
Gravel pits: To the average human they may be nothing more than an eyesore, but to many species of butterfly they are home sweet home. That's the finding of a project by a group of Polish researchers looking to examine the potential ecological value of this increasingly common habitat. In Poland alone, excavation activities doubled from 2000 to 2006, leaving behind hundreds of gravel pits waiting to be occupied by wildlife. Previous work had shown that these areas, characterized by high plant diversity and open pools, are happily utilized by waterbirds; the current study was undertaken to determine whether insects might also benefit from this anthropogenic habitat. read more