Research: Arthropods

VINS in collaboration with the White River Partnership has created an index on iNaturalist to inventory crayfish throughout Vermont. The focus is on tracking the spread of the invasive Rusty Crayfish throughout Vermont waterways.

Project Overview

iNaturalist index

VINS in collaboration with Mass Audubon, NJ Audubon, PA Firefly Festival, NC Museum of Science will be monitoring firefly populations at our respective centers. Trainings will be conducted for interested volunteers.

Firefly Watch Data

VINS participates in several citizen science projects focusing on monarch butterflies. Each summer we count milkweed plants and survey for caterpillars. We sample butterflies for Ophryocystis elektroscirrha (OE) spores and send collected samples to University of Georgia for analysis. Each fall we tag butterflies as part of Monarch Watch’s long term migration study. Learn more about our monarch tagging project.

monarchwatch.org

monarchparasites.org