Around 30,000 Danish school pupils are spending this week collecting insects and spider webs for researchers, in what is described as the largest national mapping of insect species diversity in Denmark.
The nationwide mass experiment is running in schools across the country this week, DR reports. The pupils act as junior researchers, gathering material that scientists will use to identify small insect species that have never been described.
The Natural History Museum of Denmark is taking part in the project, which is coordinated with Astra, Denmark’s national center for science education. TV2 Østjylland reports that more than 30,000 pupils are collecting insects and spider webs for the researchers this week.
Save up to 2,800 DKK on Your Electricity Bill
FindElpriser helps you switch electricity providers quickly and easily.
Spider webs as data collectors
A central part of the assignment is gathering spider webs. According to DR, webs are among nature’s most effective collectors of insect eDNA, meaning traces such as hair, droppings and carcasses.
The pupils’ finds are then sent on to researchers, who will assign each insect a genetic barcode. That allows the organisms to be identified, including species that are still unknown to science.
Insect researcher Aslak Kappel Hansen of the Natural History Museum of Denmark told DR’s radio program P1 Morgen that the project should produce new knowledge about the smallest and least charismatic species. He pointed to small parasitic wasps and small flies, which he called a very overlooked group.
Among the species he would find interesting in the traps are the parasitic flies Pales processionea and Carcelia iliaca, and the parasitic wasp Pimpla processionea. Evidence from Belgium indicates that these species can help regulate the oak processionary moth, whose caterpillars caused problems in Denmark this summer.
Hansen said current nature management leans heavily on butterflies, bees and plants. Much existing knowledge is built on large, charismatic species, which make up only a small share of total biodiversity. A broader data foundation could support better management decisions, he told DR.
Why the small species were overlooked
According to Hansen, the tiny insects have historically been very difficult to work with. Species were separated by examining their genitalia, a demanding task on a wasp measuring three millimeters.
DNA technology has changed that, allowing researchers to examine the genetic material instead. That shift makes the large-scale school collection scientifically usable, DR notes.
Astra estimates that 85 percent of the world’s species have not yet been described. The mass experiment is the first mapping of Danish insect diversity on this scale, and it comes as researchers continue to debate how Denmark’s native wildlife is monitored.
The first results from the experiment are scheduled for publication in December 2026, according to DR.
