Insect Investigators won a Eureka Award!

In 2024, the Insect Investigators program was nominated for, and then awarded a prestigious Eureka Award in the category Innovation in Citizen Science.

The Insect Investigators program was led by Dr Erinn Fagan-Jeffries from the Invertebrate Systematics and Biodiversity Lab, and involved a broad team of researchers, teachers, museum staff and more from across South Australia, Western Australia and Queensland.

The program involved working with 50 regional and rural schools across the country to collect invertebrate specimens, which our partnering taxonomists have since used to describe many new species! Classroom sessions were run with students to educate them in the scientific process, and how it is applied to Australian biodiversity, improving understanding of taxonomy throughout Australia.

To read more about the Insect Investigators project, click here.

To read more about the 2024 Eureka awards, click here.

To read about the new species descriptions that have resulted from this project, click below to access the journal articles:

DNA barcoding, integrative taxonomy, citizen science, and Bush Blitz surveys combine to reveal 34 new species of Apanteles (Hymenoptera, Braconidae, Microgastrinae) in Australia

Three new species of Australian miracine parasitoid wasps collected by regional schools as part of the Insect Investigators citizen science project (Hymenoptera, Braconidae, Miracinae)

Four new species of parasitoid wasp (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) described through a citizen science partnership with schools in regional South Australia

The hitchhiker’s guide to Australia: the 18,000-km-long journey
of Alepia viatrix Jaume-Schinkel, Kvifte, Weele & Mengual, 2022
(Diptera, Psychodidae) discovered through citizen science