Kirichenko Natalia I, Ryazanova Maria A, Kosheleva Oksana V, Gomboc Stanislav, Piškur Barbara, de Groot Maarten
Slovenian Forestry Institute, Večna pot 2, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Sukachev Institute of Forest, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Federal Research Center "Krasnoyarsk Science Center SB RAS", Akademgorodok 50/28, Krasnoyarsk 660036, Russia.
Insects. 2025 Sep 4;16(9):929. doi: 10.3390/insects16090929.
The aim of this study was to determine whether opportunistic citizen science can support the detection of life history traits in invasive insects. Using the invasive leaf-mining micromoth (Clemens 1859) (Lepidoptera: Gracillariidae) as a model species, we analyzed data from iNaturalist submitted by citizen scientists to assess the variability in its leaf mines on its native host, L., 1753 (Fabaceae), across both the moth's invaded (Europe, North America-Eastern United States) and native range (North America-Southern and Western Unites States, Eastern Canada). We examined 86,489 photographs collected over the past 20 years to compare the occurrence and proportions of different leaf mine types between invaded and native ranges using three search variants: (I) , (II) all endophagous invasive insects associated with , and (III) the host plant itself. The first two datasets revealed differences in the ratio of leaf mine types between Europe and North America (when analyzed separately for native and invaded areas), whereas the third dataset showed no significant differences in either the presence or proportion of mine types between invaded and native ranges. Leaf mine types atypical of , which resemble damage caused by other invasive insects such as Clemens, 1863 (Lepidoptera: Gracillariidae) and (Haldeman, 1847) (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae)-also associated with -have been observed in Europe for at least a decade. Our main conclusion is that, when investigating the life history traits of invasive herbivorous insects, focusing data collection on the host plant rather than on the insect species alone can reduce biases associated with opportunistic citizen science and help reveal true ecological patterns.
本研究的目的是确定机会主义式的公民科学是否能够支持对入侵昆虫生活史特征的检测。我们以入侵性潜叶微蛾（Clemens，1859年）（鳞翅目：细蛾科）作为模式物种，分析了公民科学家提交至iNaturalist的数据，以评估该微蛾在其原生寄主植物L.，1753（豆科）上潜道的变异性，研究范围涵盖了该微蛾的入侵区域（欧洲、北美洲——美国东部）和原生区域（北美洲——美国南部和西部、加拿大东部）。我们检查了在过去20年里收集的86489张照片，使用三种搜索变体比较入侵区域和原生区域不同潜道类型的出现情况和比例：（I） ，（II）与 相关的所有内食性入侵昆虫，以及（III）寄主植物本身。前两个数据集揭示了欧洲和北美洲之间潜道类型比例的差异（分别对原生区域和入侵区域进行分析时），而第三个数据集显示入侵区域和原生区域之间在潜道类型的出现情况或比例上均无显著差异。在欧洲，至少在过去十年中一直能观察到类似于其他入侵昆虫（如1863年的Clemens（鳞翅目：细蛾科）和1847年的（Haldeman）（双翅目：瘿蚊科））造成的损害的、非典型的 潜道类型——这些昆虫也与 相关。我们的主要结论是，在调查入侵食草昆虫的生活史特征时，将数据收集重点放在寄主植物而非仅昆虫物种上，可以减少与机会主义式公民科学相关的偏差，并有助于揭示真实的生态模式。
