In Franche-Comté, Agnes tracks insects in search of science

Next to her grandson, she is scanning the tall grass for a specific insect, the praying mantis. Agnes Gresset knows that on top of Justice Hill in Belfort, you’ll likely find some. In addition, this previous parameter of SVT has its own technologies, “They blend in a lot with the vegetation, but you just need to find one to identify the others that congregate in the same area. Sometimes we find dozens of mantis in one afternoon”, she explained.

If she has embarked on this work, she is helping the National Botanical Institute in Franche Comte and the Regional Observatory of Invertebrates. This organization offers participatory surveys for Francs-Comtois nature lovers. The goal is to identify the numbers of plants and insects in the area.

Today, Agnes leaves empty-handed from her pursuit, but she has some photos of her praying ferret to send to the conservatory. Therefore, she just has to post the photos on the conservatory’s website and report the location of her discovery.

Basic data for the protection of plants and animals

Once the data is sent, a scientist from the conservatory analyzes it. With a sufficient number of items, the conservatory can produce distribution maps for the different genres in the area.

For conservatory botanist Christoph Henken, these participatory surveys are especially useful. “We note, for example, that some species are disappearing from Franche-Comté. We need this information in order to be able to say that this or that species must be protected, because it is in decline “ Explains the world.

Every year since then, participatory surveys have enabled the conservatory to make assessments of dozens of plant and insect species.