Microplastic pollution found in insect casing from 1971
Freshwater insects used ‘microplastic’ as a building material long before scientists coined the term
Tiny particles of plastic are everywhere today, but a discovery in a museum collection proves that this isn’t a new phenomenon. While combing through drawers of caddisfly specimens, researchers found evidence of microplastic particles being used as a building material by caddisfly larvae as far back as the 1970s and 1980s. This shows that microplastics were present in rural freshwater streams long before scientists started studying them in earnest.
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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-01265-y
This story originally appeared on: Nature - Author:Shamini Bundell
