The number of insects species in Connecticut is climbing due to climate change.
As the seasons move through their annual procession, they are accompanied by the presence of a spectacular diversity of insects. Bees, butterflies, moths – you name it, if you look closely you’ll see them. Connecticut is home to more than 10,000 species of insects, says ecology and evolutionary biology professor David Wagner, and the number is climbing each year – due to climate change.
Since his arrival in Connecticut in the late 1980s, after finishing his degree out West, Wagner has been studying the insects around the state, starting in his own backyard. “I started keeping a list right after I arrived,” he says. “I was able to record around 1,200 different butterflies and moths within a mile of my first house here in Connecticut.”
Wagner says that with climate change, as with any other environmental change, there will be winners and there will be losers.
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