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Counting bees on flowers can improve environmental awarenessAntagain / Getty ImagesAs is already done with birds using the eBird and WikiAves mobile apps, anyone can now record visits to flowers by pollinators such as bees, flies, and hummingbirds. The FIT Count app, used to count flowers and insects, was launched by the UK Pollinator Monitoring Scheme (PoMS) in 2017. It has been in use in Brazil since 2021, reaching 909 users and 133,471 recorded insect and bird interactions by 2022. By the end of 2023, 25 users in Brazil had recorded 1,153 visits by bees, beetles, wasps, and moths to 19 plant species, mainly basil (Ocimum basillicum) and false heather (Cuphea hyssopifolia). Counts must be made over a 10-minute period in a 50-centimeter square around the flowers of a plant. The app can be downloaded from https://fitcount.ceh.ac.uk/, with a choice of languages available. Researchers from the University of São Paulo (USP), the Federal University of ABC (UFABC), and the University of Vale do Rio dos Sinos (UNISINOS) created a manual in Portuguese (https://zenodo.org/records/6419201) to stimulate environmental education through the app, which could also provide data for scientific research (Biodiversity Information Science and Standards, August 23).
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