In England there is becoming less and less of the glowing beetle. Also in Germany the shrinkage is high. Debt, especially pesticides.

2000 species worldwide, but increasingly rare: the Firefly photo: Photo Alto/picture alliance

BERLIN taz | Earlier you lit up on summer evenings at the edges of Paths and fields, but today you have to search specifically to find the fireflies. The Lampyridae in Germany increasingly rare, and with them a piece of nature, romance is lost.

In the South of England has established a new long-term study of the London-based Royal Entomological Society, between 2001 to 2018, with an annual decline of 3.5 per cent has been counted – in total approximately 75 percent less in 18 years.

As the reasons for this decline, the study pointed out that the warmer and drier climate. A senior scientist of the study, Tim Gardiner, described the sight of fireflies as "magical" and asked: "Would it not be sad if there were these creatures?"

The Werner Schulze, a spokesman for the Federal Committee on entomology of the Nature protection League (NABU) finds. He lays the blame for the Disappearance of insects, but especially on the extensive use of pesticides on the ceiling. The decline in the number of observations of the insects is less clear, since their habitat is disappearing.

Schulze is confident that the fireflies in Germany are affected by the General insect loss. Scientific evidence indicates that climate change should lead in Central Europe, actually to an increase in not only insects, but also in their biomass. While the species increase is observed, showed the basic Krefeld study in 2017, but that the mass was in Germany declined in the period between 1989 and 2015 to about 75 percent.

The area-wide use of chemical plant protection products is attributed a special role. Schulze described the "General impact of pesticides" as a "dramatic," as well as the General insect loss.

mitigate the insects die, need to be changed in both processes, in agriculture as well as in the society. However, he also notes that farmers will be better paid, and food costs would have to, in order to allow more sustainable agriculture.

While worldwide there are over 2,000 species of fireflies, it is distinguished in Central Europe, only 3, mainly due to their size. In Germany, they can only be observed in June and July. In General, only the male beetles can fly. The lights of the fireflies is caused by a chemical process in the abdomen and is used according to previous findings, especially the life partner.

The big Firefly, as well as the short wing Firefly are widely used in Germany, no precise data could be made to fall, says Schulze. In the case of the most abundant small Firefly the Distribution, especially through agriculture and forestry, as well as by light pollution, according to the entomologist declined. In many places it had disappeared. To watch yet he was preferred, in meadows and in bushes, but especially at forest edges and wetlands.