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Comment by flyGuyOnTheSly | Hacker News Reader

Just some wishful thinking here...

Is it possible that the local insect populations got wise to these malaise traps that the researchers were using in western germany?

Apparently the way that a malaise trap works is that it waits for insects to fly into it's wall, hopes that they crawl up the wall, and then hopes that they crawl right into a bottle filled with ethanol.

Now I do not know anything at all about insects and how they might learn or adapt to various situations.

But I know that they can adapt just like anything else, and maybe some of them starting saying "no I will not crawl up that screen into the bottle of alcohol" after 27 years and got the word out to other local insects?

Am I crazy for thinking that might be the case?

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The amount of times insect populations are sampled (sparingly) means that there's simply not enough deaths proportional to the population to have a meaninful effect on selecting for those traits.

> Am I crazy for thinking that might be the case?

I don’t know; but I wish they would be able to adapt so rapidly. Think how after thousands of years they still don’t understand they can’t fly through transparent glass.

Flying into transparent glass under their own power isn't something that kills an insect, so there won't be any selection mechanism at work.

One of the other things to consider is the windshield/windscreen phenomenon[0]:

  > If you talk to people, they have a gut feeling. They remember how insects used to smash on your windscreen...
  > I used to have to wash my car all the time. It was always covered with insects.

I suppose there might be a selection mechanism at play there. Perhaps some insects have learned to avoid flying over comparably warmer swaths of pavement?

I still think the news here is pretty frightening.

[0] http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/05/where-have-all-insect...

It also depends on which side of the Gnat Line you're driving. :)

http://southofthegnatline.blogspot.com/p/gnat-line-101_28.ht...

You're grossly overestimating the period in which window glass has been commonplace.

"Hardwick Hall, more glass than wall." Noted for its novelty, 1597.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardwick_Hall

Transparent glass doesn't kill them so it doesn't exert any evolutionary pressure.

Probably not the same thing as most don't die when they hit the window

Typical. "Let's attribute this serious and foreboding situation to a veritable act of God, like insects getting spontaneously smarter, so that we can all go home feeling a bit happier and less responsible for our impending doom."

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