Shanghai Natural History Museum launched "Shanghai Insect Family Tree" citizen science project

On April 8, 2023, the Shanghai Natural History Museum launched the "Shanghai Insect Family Tree" citizen science project and the "My Nature Box" series of activities in 2023. The project aims to mobilize the general public to collect, record and upload information on the distribution of urban insects with the "Hear Everything" WeChat app of Shanghai Natural History Museum as a vehicle to provide valuable scientific research data for urban biodiversity conservation. 

The activity will recruit volunteers as "Nature Liaison Officers" and will follow up with a field survey on the biodiversity of urban insects in Shanghai, collect and organize new records of insect species in Shanghai and update and publish the "Shanghai Insect List" on an annual basis. In the second half of this year, the results of the citizen scientists' investigations and research data will also be displayed in the form of a popular science exhibition in Shanghai Natural History Museum. 

At the launch ceremony, the museum launched the public service science booklet on Shanghai Terrestrial Invertebrate Identification Guide for download by beginners to get started. At the same time, it jointly released the public service science illustration on 1000 Species of Insects in Shanghai with Dacheng Xiaochong Studio and Environmental Entomology Laboratory of Shanghai Normal University to provide insect lovers as reference materials. The public can download it through the WeChat official account of Shanghai Natural History Museum and the "Hear Everything" app.

In the conversation salon, Wang Sibao, President of the Shanghai Society for Entomology, Tang Liang, Associate Professor of the College of Life Sciences, Shanghai Normal University, Yong Yi, an independent environmental education scholar, and Bu Yun, a researcher at the Shanghai Natural History Museum, conducted a conversation. Experts said that insects are important materials for scientific research, and mobilizing public participation in recording the insects in Shanghai is not only an innovative way to investigate insects and effectively improve the breadth of sampling and investigation, but also can enhance public awareness of environmental protection and fully help protect urban biodiversity.