Using public buses, researchers track insect diversity: DNA from windshields reveals 3,700+ species across Austria.
Insects are the small, tireless engines of our ecosystems – and yet we often know far too little about their distribution. Traditional monitoring is laborious: collecting and identifying thousands of species? A mammoth task! However, the team at the Department of Zoology at the University of Innsbruck had a clever idea: using public buses as insect collectors.
As the buses travel across Tyrol, Carinthia, Upper Austria, and Lower Austria, countless insects land on their windshields. This “roadkill” is not simply wiped away carelessly – it is scientifically evaluated. The researchers wash the windshields, isolate the DNA from the remains, and thus determine which species were on the move.
The result for 2024: over 3,700 different insect and arthropod species (Figure 1)! Some are found everywhere, others only regionally.
The conclusion: The Insect Bus Monitoring allows changes in insect diversity to be recorded quickly, reliably, and over a large area – truly pioneering work that will help us to better protect and understand insects in a rapidly changing world.
