Text from TPWD Sept. 29, 2021, news release (condensed by Paula Dittrick, TMNCPC blogmaster). Logo from Texas Pollinator BioBlitz web site. Photo by John Donaho
The Texas Parks & Wildlife Department (TPWD) invites citizen scientists to participate in the sixth annual statewide Texas Pollinator BioBlitz Oct. 1-17. The Lone Star state hosts thousands of pollinator species from monarchs to solitary bees.
BioBlitz participants look for pollinators, take still photographs or video of them, and then share online #TXPollinators when posting onto iNaturalist or a Facebook Texas Pollinator BioBlitz page or Instagram. The goal is to increase awareness of the diversity and importance of pollinators and their habitat needs.
After registering with the bioblitz web site, participants report their observations on the iNat application using their phones or computers. All pollinators and flowering plants posted Oct. 1-17 automatically are included in iNat’s 2021 Texas Pollinator BioBlitz Project. The iNat page lists a set of requirements for what can be reported as observations.
“Documented declines in insect populations, particularly pollinators, have brought to the forefront the need to better understand these species and the support they provide Texas rangelands, agriculture, and native ecosystems,” said Ross Winton, TPWD invertebrate biologist.
TPWD has designated about 30 species of pollinators as Species of Greatest Conservation Need. Native butterflies, bees, moths, bats, hummingbirds, wasps, flies and beetles are essential to maintaining healthy ecosystems.