Myrmecological Collection from Italian Citizen Science Project “School of Ants”

Occurrence Specimen
Latest version published by Council for Agricultural Research and Economics, Research Centre for Plant Protection and Certification on Mar 6, 2026 Council for Agricultural Research and Economics, Research Centre for Plant Protection and Certification
Publication date:
March 6, 2026
License:
CC-BY 4.0

Download the latest version of this resource data as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A) or the resource metadata as EML or RTF:

Data as a DwC-A file download 4,698 records in English (67 KB) - Update frequency: annually
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Description

School of Ants Italy is a citizen science project coordinated by the University of Parma, in collaboration with MUSE – Science Museum of Trento (Italy). The initiative engages thousands of non-expert volunteers of various ages, genders, and backgrounds, with the objective of monitoring the distribution of urban ant species throughout Italy.Data are collected by participants following standardized protocols and using dedicated sampling kits during educational activities, bioblitzes, and scientific outreach events. All specimens are collected using bait-based sampling methods and subsequently identified by the research team responsible for the project.The resulting dataset spans the period from 2011 to 2024 and includes records primarily from Northern Italy, with additional observations from Central and Southern regions as well as the major islands. These data contribute to the long-term monitoring of ant biodiversity in Italy and represent a valuable resource for future research in ecology and citizen science.

Data Records

The data in this occurrence resource has been published as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A), which is a standardized format for sharing biodiversity data as a set of one or more data tables. The core data table contains 4,698 records.

This IPT archives the data and thus serves as the data repository. The data and resource metadata are available for download in the downloads section. The versions table lists other versions of the resource that have been made publicly available and allows tracking changes made to the resource over time.

Versions

The table below shows only published versions of the resource that are publicly accessible.

How to cite

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

Castracani C, Spotti F A, Bisanti M (2025). Myrmecological Collection from Italian Citizen Science Project “School of Ants”. Version 1.0. Occurrence dataset. https://cloud.gbif.org/eca/resource?r=school_of_ants_2025&v=1.0

Rights

Researchers should respect the following rights statement:

The publisher and rights holder of this work is Council for Agricultural Research and Economics, Research Centre for Plant Protection and Certification. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY 4.0) License.

GBIF Registration

This resource has been registered with GBIF, and assigned the following GBIF UUID: 92c064da-7d2e-4079-b491-f48c54eacb63.  Council for Agricultural Research and Economics, Research Centre for Plant Protection and Certification publishes this resource, and is itself registered in GBIF as a data publisher endorsed by Participant Node Managers Committee.

Keywords

Occurrence; Specimen

Contacts

Cristina Castracani
  • Originator
University of Parma, Department of Chemistry, Life Sciences & Environmental Sustainability (SCVSA)
  • Parco Area delle Scienze, 11/a
43124 Parma
IT
Fiorenza Augusta Spotti
  • Originator
University of Parma, Department of Chemistry, Life Sciences & Environmental Sustainability (SCVSA)
  • Parco Area delle Scienze, 11/a
43124 Parma
IT
Matteo Bisanti
  • Originator
University of Parma, Department of Chemistry, Life Sciences & Environmental Sustainability (SCVSA)
  • Parco Area delle Scienze, 11/a
43124 Parma
IT
Alessandro Campanaro
  • Point Of Contact
Council for Agricultural Research and Economics, Research Centre for Plant Protection and Certification
  • Via Lanciola, 12/a
Firenze
IT

Geographic Coverage

Italy

Bounding Coordinates South West [36.633, 6.706], North East [46.767, 18.589]

Taxonomic Coverage

Insecta, Hymenoptera, Formicidae. All samples were identified to species level.

Kingdom Animalia

Temporal Coverage

Start Date / End Date 2011-10-19 / 2024-10-28

Project Data

School of Ants Italy is a citizen science project coordinated by the University of Parma, in collaboration with MUSE – Science Museum of Trento (Italy). The initiative engages thousands of non-expert volunteers of various ages, genders, and backgrounds, with the objective of monitoring the distribution of urban ant species throughout Italy. Data are collected by participants following standardized protocols and using dedicated sampling kits during educational activities, bioblitzes, and scientific outreach events. All specimens are collected using bait-based sampling methods and subsequently identified by the research team responsible for the project.

Title School of Ants: a scuola con le formiche (SOA)
Funding This work was supported by the collaboration agreement and the “contract for the management of educational and scientific material development” between University of Parma and Museo delle Scienze-Trento within the framework of the School of Ants project, and by grants from the University of Parma (FIL from 2012 to 2023) and by Fondazione CARIPARMA assigned to Professor Alessandra Mori and by grants from the University of Parma (FIL from 2018 to 2023) assigned to Professor Donato A. Grasso. This work has also benefited from the equipment and framework of the COMP-HUB and COMP-R Initiatives, funded by the ‘Departments of Excellence’ program of the Italian Ministry for University and Research (MIUR, 2018-2022 and MUR, 2023-2027).

The personnel involved in the project:

Cristina Castracani
  • Principal Investigator
Fiorenza Augusta Spotti
  • Curator
Matteo Bisanti
  • Curator
Maria Vittoria Zucchelli
  • Curator

Sampling Methods

Standard sampling protocol using baits. Study sites are not pre-defined.

Study Extent Italian urban areas
Quality Control The samples collected by citizens are identified at species level by taxonomy experts.

Method step description:

  1. Castracani C, Spotti FA, Schifani E, Giannetti D, Ghizzoni M, Grasso DA, Mori A. (2020). Public Engagement Provides First Insights on Po Plain Ant Communities and Reveals the Ubiquity of the Cryptic Species Tetramorium immigrans (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). Insects 11(10): 678.

Collection Data

Collection Name Myrmecological collection of University of Parma
Specimen preservation methods Alcohol,  Dried

Additional Metadata

Maintenance Description Yearly addition of new records and periodic revision of taxonomic nomenclature by experts
Alternative Identifiers 92c064da-7d2e-4079-b491-f48c54eacb63
https://cloud.gbif.org/eca/resource?r=school_of_ants_2025