[Pollinator] Pollinator Digest, Vol 2700, Issue 1

Tue Sep 16 12:31:49 PDT 2025

Kit:

The nice thing about citizen science for tracking pollinators in Australia
is that we needn't depend on insect projects right this minute. You're
right,, how can people without entomological training, nets and taxonomic
monographs track Australian bees, syrphid flies, Christmas beetles etc.?
Ah, but you could have a citizen science program revolving around bird
pollinators first, right? Depending on whom you cite, bird pollinators in
Australia cover at least 5 families. Many species come into cities and
suburbs and they forage on native plant species that have been brought into
cultivation (banksias, eucalypts, kangaroo paws, grevilleas) as well as
those plants surviving in suburban reserves. Here comes the good part.
There are plenty of dependable field guides for Australian birds,
Furthermore, ABC Science has brought urban birds to the attention of its
viewers (see link below) and it wouldn't take much effort to slant citizens
to watch and report on the number of lorikeets, red wattlebirds and
silveryes on their local Eucalyptus ficifolia. Yes, I know you want people
to report native bees but you have to start somewhere.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EA3VNP2vJM&t=5s

Peter Bernhardt
Research Assoc. The Missouri Botanical Garden, Saint Louis MO

On Tue, Sep 16, 2025 at 2:00 PM <pollinator-request at lists.sonic.net> wrote:

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> Today's Topics:
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>    1. National citizen science monitoring of native bees
>       (Kit Prendergast)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Sun, 14 Sep 2025 19:00:03 +1000
> From: Kit Prendergast <kitprendergast21 at gmail.com>
> To: beemonitoring <beemonitoring at googlegroups.com>, Bee United
>         <beemonitoring at yahoogroups.com>, Pollinator
>         <pollinator-bounces+bernhap2=slu.edu at lists.sonic.net>, Pollinator
>         List-serv <pollinator at lists.sonic.net>
> Subject: [Pollinator] National citizen science monitoring of native
>         bees
> Message-ID:
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> CAN2D7pGYdhkFWYgfPawuAY+4oUrgt-u_chgGbybjsQ_pMK6AhA at mail.gmail.com>
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>
> Hi Beeple,
>
> I've been thinking about national citizen science monitoring protocols for
> Australia and would like to hear anyone's experience and opinion on the
> following please;
>
> Citizen science is of course a powerful tool for documenting invasive
> species, or range extensions, but when it comes to monitoring, how can we
> assess data in a way that ensures we get robust monitoring data?
>
> In Australia there is an Australian pollinator count which is not designed
> well at all for monitoring. It's based on people choosing a plant (any
> plant) in spring  and autumn recording for just 10 mins on this one day
> twice a year (and could be a different plant species) how many insects in
> pre-defined and poorly defined categories (e.g. there's no category for
> Neopasiphaeinae, Hylaeinae and Euryglossinae, who are lumped into 'other
> native bees', despite making up about one quarter of native bee
> biodiversity, then there's 'stingless bees' (11 species), 'blue banded
> bees' (14 species, but one doesn't have bands let alone blue bands) and
> then 'other Australian bee'; ladybird beetle (which probably aren't
> pollinators), 'native wasp' (with a photo of a non-native wasp :s),
> European wasp , and 'butterfly, moth or skipper' (somehow skippers are not
> butterflies?). Anyway, I don't see how anyone can possibly track the
> abundance or diversity of native bees and other insects based on two 10 min
> observation periods in the year .
>
> But for citizen science monitoring as a whole;
>
> The first issue is identifications - even with photos where we can verify,
> it is impossible for many species to get accurate IDs, and with photos,
> it's unlikely you'll photo every bee on a plant if it's an attractive plant
> with many visitors.
> So you're going to get mainly insects that are easy to photograph, and not
> get an abundance estimate, just a presence and not know whether it's one or
> 20.
>
> Then there is the issue of disentangling how many people are recording - if
> we see an increase in a taxon, is it just because more people are making
> observations?
>
> So for those involved in POMS or any of the other UK/Ireland/USA monitoring
> projects on large scales, how can you actually get a handle even on coarse
> levels (e.g. of a higher taxonomic group like Halictidae) of their
> abundance when it is confounded by how many people are making observations?
> You could average number of that taxon observed over 10 mins by number of
> observers, but it still makes it tricky to actually know how the abundance
> of that taxon is doing, especially if you've got different areas being
> recorded each time.
>
> My observation is that citizen science is best suited for tracking
> populations of an easy to identify, single species, documenting range
> extensions, changes in phenology, but is less suited for monitoring of
> populations. However, there is way more funding in Australia for citizen
> science than professional science monitoring of native bees, so I really
> want to ensure that given the push for the former, we can actually get a
> good handle on how our native bees are doing, not just how many people are
> making recordings over time.
>
> Best,
> Kit
>
> --
> Dr Kit Prendergast
> Native bee scientist, conservation biologist and zoologist
> University of Southern QLD Postdoctoral Researcher (Pollination Ecology)
> Adjunct Curtin University and Forrest Scholar Alumni
>
> Find native bee resources and more on my Patreon The Bee Babette:
> https://www.patreon.com/c/TheBeeBabette
>
> ORCiD: *https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1164-6099
> <https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1164-6099>*
> Research: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Kit-Prendergast/research
> YouTube channel The Bee Babette: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheBeeBabette
> 'Creating a Haven for Native Bees':
> https://www.facebook.com/CreatingaHavenforNativeBeesBook/
> Wild Bee artwork:
>
> https://www.redbubble.com/people/BeeBabette/explore?asc=u&page=1&sortOrder=recent
> Insta: @bee.babette_performer:
> https://www.instagram.com/bee.babette_performer/?hl=en
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