Insect (beetle) remains
- Graphics Insects
If the sieving for the botanical macroremains is done with ultimate care, fragile remnants of insects can also be retrieved from the sediments, in particular remains from beetles. The beetles are of special importance, because a certain species can be often attributed to specific climate conditions. The most important feature of beetles is, however, their relation to winter temperatures. Winter temperatures cannot be calculated from any plant remains, because they don’t grow in winter. Beetles also live during the temperate seasons, but they have to survive the winter, e.g. buried in soils. In particular, species that live under extremely cold conditions developed an antifreeze system to keep their biomass alive under arctic winter climate. Such beetle species can be used to reconstruct the accurate winter temperature of the last glacial and stadial time intervals (Britzius et al., in prep.).
Insect remains
