This month marks 2 years of citizen-scientists contributing photos of bees to BeeSpotter. 2 years ago, in October of 2007, the Department of Entomology and the Office for Mathematics, Science, and Technology Education at the University of Illinois launched the BeeSpotter website as a partnership between citizen-scientists and the professional science community.

BeeSpotter is a web-based portal for learning about bumble bees and for contributing data to a nationwide effort to baseline information on population status of these insects. Anyone can create a user account and upload bee photos. You can also view bee photos that have been contributed by other concerned citizens or read up on bee-related topics, including:

• Bee Identification Keys
• Biographies of Illinois Bumble Bees
• Guide to photographing bees for BeeSpotter
  

Some highlights of BeeSpotter include:

• Rare bee spotting: in August 2008, a species of bumble bee which is rare in Illinois -- Bombus affinis -- was spotted by Johanna James-Heinz near Peoria, Illinois
• Rare mimic spotting: in July 2009 a rare bee mimic -- the adult bot fly, Cuterebra abdominalis (Order Diptera, Family Oestridae) -- was spotted by Mike Shay in Bolingbrook, Illinois
• 694 BeeSpotters have created user accounts
• 1,267 bee spottings have been contributed
• 2,291 images have been uploaded!
• The top 2 contributors in 2009 have been John Dahlstedt and Scott Barnes
  

BeeSpotter