FlySpy

FlySpy is a Citizen Science project jointly run as a collaboration among researchers at Stony Brook University (Dr. John True), National Taiwan University (Dr. Chau-Ti Ting), National Central University (Taiwan; Dr. Shu-Dan Yeh), and Academia Sinica (Dr. Shu Fang). The project aims to inform members of the public on urban ecology and involve them in data collecting on Drosophila elegans, a species with a unique flower-breeding ecology that is found in many sites throughout Taiwan, most of which have been subject to anthropogenic disturbances. Through collecting detailed spatial and temporal information on the flower breeding sites of this species, this project will allow us to develop D. elegans as a model species for urban ecology, which will provide insights on how insects respond to ecological disturbances, introduced and invasive plants, and climate change.