University of Coimbra leads European project to review and improve pollinator reference collections in Portugal
Information on pollinating insects in Portugal is limited, and the largest public collections need to be indexed and organized to identify gaps in our knowledge about the major pollinating insects.
The Faculty of Sciences and Technology of the University of Coimbra (FCTUC) is leading the European project “Aligning Reference Collections with tAxonomic Development Efforts for pollinator conservation in Portugal - ARCADE”, to revise and improve Portugal's collections of major pollinator groups.
Coordinated by Professor and researcher Sílvia Castro, along with researchers Hugo Gaspar, Cristina Rufino, Ana Afonso, and João Loureiro from the Centre for Functional Ecology (CFE) and the Department of Life Sciences (DCV), the project aims to index, verify, and improve the main reference collections of bees, flower flies, and diurnal butterflies in the country.
ARCADE is part of a larger European project, "TETTRIs", and has three main objectives, including the creation of an accessible and up-to-date database of different pollinator sub-collections in Portugal; the revision and improvement of three Portuguese public collections to serve as a reference for future projects; and the development of best practice protocols for the organisation and preservation of existing and future collections.
Young researcher Hugo Gaspar believes that ARCADE "will be crucial for achieving the objectives of projects already underway, such as PollinizAÇÃO, also coordinated by the UC, and the polli.NET network". Gaspar also points out that this new project "represents a significant step forward in the knowledge of the taxonomy and distribution of pollinators in Portugal, and will provide access to high quality, standardised reference collections throughout the country".
More information about the ARCADE project is available here.