Are mist nets a menace for threatened insects? A first attempt to gather quantitative data

What is it about?

We attempted to identify the threat to flying beetles imposed by mist nets deployed for bird studies in an area of Mediterranean mosaic of evergreen scrub and deciduous forest in Italy. The results lead us to suggest that the populations of some threatened dung beetles can be impoverished at local level and represent a bycatch of mist net techniques, especially in early spring and at sunrise, when their swarming and reproductive activity is high.

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Why is it important?

Outreach: this paper was Indexed by the Biological Conservation Newsletter No. 328 (April 2012) edited by Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History