Department of Entomology, National Chung Hsing University, No. 145, Xingda Road, South District, Taichung City 402202, Taiwan.
Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, Faculty of Agriculture, Chiang Mai University, 239 Huay Kaew Road, Muang District, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand.
J Econ Entomol. 2022 Oct 12;115(5):1650-1658. doi: 10.1093/jee/toac122.
Information regarding the species composition and dispersal flight season of termites is crucial for termite management. The major obstacles to collecting such information are a lack of access to private buildings and shortage of workers to monitor and report on termite swarming. To overcome these difficulties, we launched a citizen science project in which members of the public and pest management professionals were invited to collect termite samples. We created the website, Taiwan Termite Identification Service, on which populace could log the collection information, and ship termite samples to our laboratory for identification. We also established a Facebook group, called the "Termite Forum," to publicize this project. A total of 3024 samples were collected from 2015 to 2020, and we identified the species of >93% of the samples. Based on 1499 samples collected from buildings, five structural termite pests were identified, and species composition in each county of Taiwan is available. According to 844 dispersal flight events, termite dispersal flight timing peak and degree of centralization were estimated using a Gaussian model. The collected data demonstrated that the invasive termite species, Coptotermes gestroi (Wasmann) (Blattodea: Rhinotermitidae), continued northward expansion. The first intercepted alate of Schedorhinotermes sp. (Blattodea: Rhinotermitidae) indicated that it may be a new invasive pest from Southeast Asia. This study reports on a successful case of a citizen science project where urban pest data were collected on a national scale.
有关白蚁物种组成和扩散飞行季节的信息对于白蚁管理至关重要。收集此类信息的主要障碍是无法进入私人建筑，以及缺乏监测和报告白蚁群飞的工作人员。为了克服这些困难，我们发起了一个公民科学项目，邀请公众和害虫管理专业人员收集白蚁样本。我们创建了一个网站，即“台湾白蚁鉴定服务”，公众可以在该网站上记录收集信息，并将白蚁样本寄送到我们的实验室进行鉴定。我们还建立了一个名为“白蚁论坛”的 Facebook 群组，宣传这个项目。从 2015 年到 2020 年，共收集了 3024 个样本，我们鉴定了超过 93%的样本的物种。根据从建筑物收集的 1499 个样本，确定了 5 种结构白蚁害虫，并且可以获得台湾每个县的物种组成。根据 844 次扩散飞行事件，使用高斯模型估计了白蚁扩散飞行的时间峰值和集中程度。收集的数据表明，入侵白蚁物种 Coptotermes gestroi (Wasmann)（鳞翅目：鼻白蚁科）继续向北扩张。首次截获Schedorhinotermes sp.（鳞翅目：鼻白蚁科）的有翅成虫表明它可能是一种来自东南亚的新入侵害虫。本研究报告了一个成功的公民科学项目案例，该项目在全国范围内收集了城市害虫数据。
