The CalBug Project: Insects, Environmental Change, and Citizen Science

The Essig Museum at UC Berkeley is home to over five million specimens of insects and other arthropods, with collection dates ranging from the 1890s to present. Labels attached to each specimen hold information on where and when it was collected, providing a window into past habitats, climate, and biological diversity. To take advantage of this vast historical data set, students and volunteers are working with museum staff to database over one million specimen records from eight different institutions in a project called CalBug. Combining specimen locality records with data on past climate and land use, CalBug will model the impacts these environmental changes have had on insect and spider distributions and how they might change in the future. Dr. Peter Oboyski will take you on a virtual tour of the collections and introduce you to the CalBug project - and tell you how you can participate!