Evaluating Promotional Approaches for Citizen Science\ud Biological Recording: Bumblebees as a Group Versus\ud Harmonia axyridis as a Flagship for Ladybirds

摘要

Over the past decade, the number of biological records submitted by members of the public have increased dramatically. However, this may result in reduced record quality, depending on how species are promoted in the media. Here we examined the two main promotional approaches for citizen science recording schemes: flagship-species, using one charismatic species as an umbrella for the entire group (here, Harmonia axyridis (Pallas) for Coleoptera: Coccinellidae), and general-group, where the group is promoted as a whole and no particular prominence is given to any one species (here, bumblebees, genus Bombus (Hymenoptera: Apidae)). Of the two approaches, the\udgeneral-group approach produced data that was not\udbiased towards any one species, but far fewer records\udper year overall. In contrast, the flagship-species\udapproach generated a much larger annual dataset, but\udheavily biased towards the flagship itself. Therefore,\udwe recommend that the approach for species promotion\udis fitted to the result desired.