Parallel to the Day of Biodiversity in the Biosphere Reserve Wienerwald, ABOL was represented for the third time at the ÖEG insect camp from June 6th to 9th. Like ABOL, the insect camp also celebrated its 10th anniversary this year, and this year it took place in the Karwendel Nature Reserve in Tyrol. On this occasion, all participants were surprised with lovingly designed T-shirts. With a smile and a tear in her eye, the ÖEG youth officer Elisabeth Huber ceremoniously handed over the organization of the camp to Elisabeth Glatzhofer and Samuel Messner.
Around 40 experts and aspiring young entomologists collected various arthropod groups on 13 sample areas. Butterflies, beetles, cicadas, hymenoptera, bugs, flies, millipedes and the like were well represented due to the good weather. The sample areas were as diverse as the taxa collected themselves. Among others, coniferous forests, alpine pastures, ponds, alpine limestone grasslands, high alpine scree slopes and the river bank along the Isar were examined.
In short we presented our new Biodiversity Fund project RefDat and invited all participants to join the project. All interested parties could then pick up tubes prepared by our team for sampling the collected material.
Early in the morning, with full stomachs, a wide range of utensils and mostly ideal weather, the groups fanned out to the study area. After dinner, they met in the restaurant and prepared and identified in a relaxed atmosphere until late into the night. During this time, the opportunity was taken to exchange profound information and make new contacts. All the brave and bright ones went out to light up the night thunderstorms to catch moths with light traps at the end of the day.
We would like to thank the ÖEG team and the Karwendel Nature Park team for the great catering and organization and especially Elisabeth Huber for her many years of commitment! We are eagerly awaiting the results of the data analysis as well as the results of our DNA samples.
Impressions (photos: N. Fial, N. Szucsich):
