A mother and her daughter discover a rare animal that is even poisonous. They share a photo of their find on Facebook.
Bremen – Insects are among the most species-rich class of animals. According to the Federal Environment Ministry, more than 33,000 insect species live in Germany alone. Many of them play an important role in the ecosystem. A mother and her six-year-old daughter have now discovered what appears to be a special creature while out for a walk.
“Very special find”: mother and daughter discover rare animal
The two shared the find with the German criminal biologist Mark Benecke. The scientist finally published the news in a Facebook post. “My daughter and I went for a walk today and made a very special find,” it said. It is not known where they made the discovery. Researchers must also have been amazed at a historical find in the Weser.
“Unfortunately, I couldn’t explain to her at first what kind of beetle it was because I’ve never seen a beetle like that before,” said the woman. Using “Google Lens” – an image recognition app – the two then identified a black-and-blue oil beetle.
Black-blue oil beetle discovered: “I didn’t realize they were so rare”
It seems to be a rare animal that one should even “bow down” to. “The small larvae wait in a flower blossom for a ground-nesting wild bee. If by chance it clings to the right bee and lands on the bee eggs, it eats them and then buries itself to make pupae. “The following year she starts her insect life,” said the mother. “Sighting a beetle like this can be compared to winning the lottery.”
The Facebook community was happy about the discovery of mother and daughter. “Great find,” wrote one user. “I didn’t realize they were so rare,” commented another. Others took the post as an opportunity to share their own sightings of the beetle. “Collected several from our garden this year,” was one comment. “We had quite a few of them with us last year,” explained another.
Poisonous insect: Black-blue oil beetle is considered an endangered species
But are the beetles really that rare? According to the German Nature Conservation Association (Nabu), the insects can be seen quite often in spring, but the species is considered endangered because it is currently not spreading any further. Only every thousandth larva actually becomes an oil beetle. Adult beetles only live for about a month.
Therefore, a sighting of the animal is actually something special. They mostly live on roadsides, in gardens and sparse forests. But be careful: oil beetles are poisonous. They contain the defensive secretion cantharidin. This can cause severe irritation to the skin and mucous membranes in humans. “However, eating or swallowing a single black-and-blue oil beetle is not fatal,” warns Nabu. There are no known cases of fatal poisoning of people and pets by the black-blue oil beetle in Germany.
However, contact with the insect should be avoided. The mother and her daughter also adhered to this. “Of course we left the little beetle alone while we admired it and are very proud and happy to have made this find,” they said. However, a mysterious find at the fish counter caused a lot of guesswork.
(cheese)