# InsectUp: Crowdsourcing Insect Observations to Assess Demographic Shifts and Improve Classification

## TL;DR

This paper introduces InsectUp, a crowdsourcing platform that collects insect observations from the public to monitor demographic changes and enhance classification accuracy, addressing data scarcity in entomology.

## Contribution

It presents a novel crowdsourcing approach for insect data collection and demonstrates its potential to improve ecological monitoring and species classification.

## Key findings

- Public interest in insect observation is high.
- Crowdsourced data can effectively supplement scientific surveys.
- The method enhances early detection of environmental threats.

## Abstract

Insects play such a crucial role in ecosystems that a shift in demography of just a few species can have devastating consequences at environmental, social and economic levels. Despite this, evaluation of insect demography is strongly limited by the difficulty of collecting census data at sufficient scale. We propose a method to gather and leverage observations from bystanders, hikers, and entomology enthusiasts in order to provide researchers with data that could significantly help anticipate and identify environmental threats. Finally, we show that there is indeed interest on both sides for such collaboration.