Participatory sciences: how research relies on motorists to survey insects…

After the United Kingdom and Ireland – 25,000 surveys representing 760,000 kilometers traveled – Bugs Matter arrives in France where the program will be launched this Monday, April 13 and developed under the guidance of the National Museum of Natural History via Vigie Nature, the Noé association, and the Office for Insects and their Environment (Opie).

The principle is simple: before a trip, participants clean and photograph their license plate with the help of a dedicated mobile application, which records the route via GPS and counts the impacts of insects at the end of the journey. The trips must take place between May and September, not be done in the rain, nor be too short or too fast. The speed of the vehicle, the duration of the journey, the altitude, or the region crossed influence the results, which differ depending on whether you are traveling in the countryside or in an urban environment. Why the license plate and not the rearview mirror? It is a flat, standardized surface, which acts as a passive collector, as it is less exposed to the aerodynamics of the vehicle and to air flows.

These collected data, on a large scale, will allow researchers to obtain valuable indicators on the state of insect populations, essential for ecosystem functioning, and their biomass. A similar survey, which has become a global reference, had concluded a 80% decrease in flying insect populations in Denmark between 1997 and 2017.