BeeSpotter (http://beespotter.mste.uiuc.edu/) is a web-based partnership between
citizen-scientists and the professional science community designed to educate people
about pollinators by engaging them in an effort to obtain baseline information on
the population status of honey bees and bumble bees. Beespotters register and then
log in to upload photos they’ve taken; they can try to identify their specimens with
the user-friendly color-based keys on the website or leave it for the content master,
graduate student Terry Harrison, to identify. Species identity, date and locality
are then entered into the database, where they can be cross-referenced by species,
location, or collector; moreover, over 7000 historical records of bees from the INHS
collection have been entered and can be accessed and cross-checked with contemporary
sightings to determine whether ranges have shifted with time.
The site, created by webmaster Michael McKelvey, also includes bee-related topics
for visitors who would just like to learn about bees; there’s a guide to photographing
bees, bumble bee and honey bee identification keys, “bee-ographies” of Apis mellifera
and Illinois’ 11 bumble bee species, descriptions of colony collapse disorder and
bumble bee declines, resources for teachers, and instructions on making a bee-friendly
garden. In just about 1 year of operation, over 500 citizen scientists from all over
the state have uploaded over 1500 photos.
On August, 14, 2008, our website proved its scientific worth in a particularly
dramatic fashion. A Beespotter near Peoria, Illinois snapped two unambiguous photographs
of a rusty-patched bumble bee, Bombus affinis. This bee, historically known from
a wide range of localities throughout eastern North America, has declined precipitously
throughout the eastern U.S.; once abundant in Illinois, B. affinis was even thought
to be locally extinct. That a citizen scientist could show conclusively that B. affinis
is still around in our state is evidence of the power of having many interested people
watching for and caring about bees.
