MPF Webinar: Documenting Multiple Types of Pollinators Through Photography
Currently, most pollinator surveys focus on a small group of pollinating insects such as butterflies or bees at the exclusion of wasps, beetles, flies, moths, true bugs, ants, and other insects that move pollen. Webinar presenter Angella Moorehouse will share the results of her study, which was established to look at the entire group of flower-visiting insects as a community. Since 2018 through 2023, she annually surveyed pollinators and their plant associations (6 sites per year; repeated every 5 years) on 30 protected prairie, wetland, and forest natural areas in west-central Illinois with the use of photographic documentation. The use of photography allows for documentation without the time and resources required for collecting, handling, and identifying specimens. The goals of the survey are to establish baseline species lists of potential pollinators, determine flora associations, assess the impacts of invasive species, find specialist pollinators associated with rare community types, evaluate insect preference for high-quality remnants, and obtain new ideas to guide management for the benefit of the pollinating insect communities.
Angella Moorehouse works as a field representative for the Illinois Nature Preserves Commission in west-central Illinois where she prepares conservation easements to protect high quality natural areas and assists in the management and monitoring of these sites. She has been conducting photography surveys of flower-visiting insects on 30 protected preserves in west-central Illinois since 2018. Angella has published several Rapid Field Guides on wasps, bees, flies, and moths with the Field Museum. Flower Bugs is her first book publication and is intended as a field guide for the identification of flower-visiting Heteroptera (true bugs) in the Midwest.
Learn more at moprairie.org
This webinar was recorded live on June 5, 2024.
