Ladybirds in Belgium
In 1999, the Belgian Ladybird Working Group Coccinula launched a large scale field survey on 40 ladybird species. Volunteers actively searched for ladybird beetles in a variety of habitats using sweep netting, beating trays and other methods. Distribution, habitat and substrate plant information were noted on a standard recording form. The working group maintains a database of observations, literature and collection data of Coccinellidae from 1800 onwards which is published and available on GBIF, and also published a newsletter and distribution atlases for Belgium (Branquart et al., 1999; Adriaens and Maes, 2004). Since 2011, observers use www.waarnemingen.be and www.observations.be to record their ladybird data. The data from the Ladybirds Europe app will become available on this platform through GBIF publication.
Contact:
Tim Adriaens
Tim Adriaens is a conservation ecologist at the Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO). He developed a passion for ladybirds and their ecology and coordinated the Belgian Ladybird Survey through the Coccinula working group. The Belgian Ladybird Survey data fuelled several research initiatives on ladybirds in Belgium, such as the 2004 ladybird atlas and a number of research papers on the invasion of H. axyridis and its impact on native species. Currently, Tim is working on the management of invasive alien species and their monitoring through citizen science link.
Gilles San Martin is an entomologist and data scientist working at the Walloon Agricultural Research
Centre (CRA-W). His passion for entomology dates back to his childhood but he started to dive deeper into ladybirds and orthoptera when he was 15. He was involved in the Belgian national ladybirds survey and later combined his passion for ladybirds with two other passions, data science and photography, to contribute to a few papers (biodiversity, ecology, H. axyridis invasion,...) and a web gallery about these shiny and colorful bugs.
References
Adriaens T. & Maes D. (2004). Voorlopige verspreidingsatlas van lieveheersbeestjes in Vlaanderen, resultaten van het lieveheersbeestjesproject van de jeugdbonden. Bertram 2 (1bis): 1-69. http://www.inbo.be/docupload/1436.pdf
Branquart E., Maes D. (2003). Update van de verspreiding van de Belgische lieveheersbeestjes. Coccinula, Newsletter of the Belgian Ladybird Working Group 7: 5-23.