Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1993, Page 74

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PESTS RECORDED IN THE FAROE ISLANDS, 1986-1992
-b- Pest animals; -tr- Faroe Islanđers.
Fig. 16. Distribution of population and delivered
specimens according to island. Streymoy=l;
Eysturoy=2; Suðuroy=3; Borðoy=4; Vág-
oy=5; Sandoy=6; Fugloy=7; Viðoy=8; Nóls-
oy=9; Kalsoy=10; Kunoy=ll; Skúvoy=12;
Svínoy=13; Hestur=14; Mykines=15; Dím-
un=16.
Mynd 16. Nøgdin av dýrum og fólki býtt eftir oyggj.
Streymoy=l; Eysturoy=2; Suðuroy=3;
Borðoy=4; Vágoy=5; Sandoy=6; Fugloy=7;
Viðoy=8; Nólsoy=9; Kalsoy=10; Kun-
oy=ll; Skúvoy=12; Svínoy=13; Hestur=14;
Mykines=15; Dímun=16.
In May and June the clover mite. Bryobia
praetiosa (6 records, 1.7%) are found in the
window frames facing lawns. These plant-
eating mites hatch in spring when the
temperature exceeds 7°C for longer peri-
ods. If the lawn grows close to the wall of
the house they crawl from the lawn directly
to hiding places in cracks in the wall and
can then enter houses through the window
frames. These small reddish mites are
pretty and harmless and will soon disappear
again in the dry indoor climate.
Another common and highly seasonal
invader is green lacewing. Chrysopa car-
nea with 11 records (3.1%) found sitting on
inside window-panes from September to
November. It is a beautiful, harmless green
insect of 1.5-2 cm’s length with large bright
wings and large, shiny gold eyes (Fig. 13).
They are looking for a place to spend the
winter and enter the houses for this pur-
pose.
A very unpopular and also highly seaso-
nal insect is the common earwig Forficula
auricularia (8 records, 2.2%). In some
years, as for instance in 1992, with favour-
able weather conditions and a large number
of offspring they occur indoors in large
numbers in August, with a few records
around July and September (Fig. 12). The
earwig is an omnivorous noctumal insect.
Older houses with turf roofs have a greater
risk of being overrun by earwigs in the
autumn. They are generally harmless, but
are able to bite when squeezed.
The last seasonally occurring insect to be
mentioned here is the largest member of the
Faroese insect fauna, the Carabid beetle
Carabus problematicus (9 records, 2.5%).
It is a 3-4 cm long, shiny black, fast-mov-
ing insect with long legs (Fig. 12). It is
active at night and prefers moist places. In
some years, as for instance in 1992, it has
been found regularly on the ground floor
from August to October, when it was
looking for a place to spend the winter.
Later in January it is found dead, dried out
in the heated houses. This beetle is widely
distributed in the Faroes, preferring the
Calluna-heaths (Bengtson, 1981; 1882)
and it belongs to the fauna of pre-Norse
settlement times (Buckland, 1988; 1992),
having possibly arrived as a post-glacial
immigrant (Enckell, 1987).