European Pollinator Identification Courses (EPIC)

The EPIC project is composed of two main components; 1) the generation of new identification resources for European pollinators, and 2) the provision of training courses for beginner, intermediate, and advanced parataxonomists and taxonomists. 

At Naturalis, we will be focusing on wild bees, of which there are nearly 2,200 species in Europe! For the first time, new comprehensive, illustrated, and modern identification keys will be produced for 90% of European bee species, which will allow citizen scientists, amateur entomologists, and professional ecologists to accurately identify them. Resources will be hosted on the Pollinator Academy website (see link below). We will also run identification courses to train people in their use, focusing on south-western Europe. New keys will be developed for diverse bee genera such as Ammobatoides, Andrena, Melitturga, Nomiapis, Panurgus, and Thyreus. 

These keys and training courses will be used in the upcoming European Pollinator Monitoring Scheme (EU-PoMS) starting in 2027. This scheme is part of the Nature Restoration Regulation (NRR), and will provide European policy makers and conservation biologists with high quality data on the status and trends of European bees.