When only a candle enables sterile working
05/19/2026Working in the dark in a rainforest in the evening is nothing unusual for researchers in tropical biology. A candle can serve as more than just a source of light.
An evening under a covered wooden platform in the Peruvian rainforest: a metal crate serves as a makeshift table. On it are tweezers, scissors and a small corrugated plate with indentations in which insect legs float in a liquid. The only source of light is a candle on the crate. Otherwise it is pitch black.
For Dr Kim Lea Holzmann, this is what the end of a typical working day looked like during her field research in Peru. She conducts research at the Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology at the University of Würzburg. In 2022 and 2023, the scientist worked as part of a research team during several stays in the rainforests of the South American country.
Holzmann took the photo there one evening: it shows insect legs soaked in ethanol in the corrugated plate. With the help of the DNA, the biologist was later able to determine the exact species in the laboratory. The animals went into the researchers' floor traps during the day and were preserved in the evening. To prevent DNA contamination, Kim Lea Holzmann disinfected the tweezers and scissors with a candle - the only way to work sterilely in the rainforest.
During their stays, the team investigated how climate change affects the heat tolerance of insects at different altitudes. The result: a large proportion of the predicted temperatures could push half of the insect community in the Amazon lowlands to their heat limit.
More information about Dr Kim Lea Holzmann and her research
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