A successful model for citizen scientist involvement in building a statewide at-risk butterfly database.

Long-term population trend data are not available for most butterfly species in many areas. Historically, this has meant that many governmental agencies make conservation decisions affecting this group of organisms with limited knowledge about their existing populations. To remedy this situation in Florida, a statewide database containing locations of at-risk butterfly species on conservation lands was developed primarily through the efforts of citizen scientists. This paper describes the data collection methodology that was used and presents several cases studies showing how this database has already made a difference in shaping the decision-making process to help in the conservation of at-risk butterfly species. A discussion of the methodologies used to generate the at-risk butterfly database, relative to more traditional butterfly monitoring surveys, is presented and recommendations are made on ways to optimize the contributions of volunteers to insect conservation and research programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]