The Wallacean shortfall—lack of adequate knowledge of a species’ distribution in the geographic space—hinders practical actions towards species conservation, and such severe data deficit is ubiquitous when dealing with insect species. Considering the effects of human activities on Earth, especially in the last 50 years, proper delimitation of species distributions is of utmost importance for their conservation, but this is challenging when occurrence data for a species are limited. Here, we present suitable areas of occurrence for a recently-described specialist bee in the Southeastern United States ( Colletes ultravalidus Hall and Ascher), modeled with presence-only methods that are robust to small number of occurrence points. Incorporation of new citizen science data points derived from images submitted online for identification enhanced the species distribution model which, in turn, validated the new sites as suitable for the species. Consideration of absence points, i.e. sites where the species was not recorded despite intensive surveys for Colletes and other specialist bees, resulted in more precise predications that can inform future searches for this bee. This study exemplifies how citizen-science projects may contribute to improving understanding of species biogeographic ranges and thus to overcoming the Wallacean shortfall. The need for critical evaluation prior to and after modeling of the occurrences obtained by non-specialists are discussed.

中文翻译：

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预测最近描述的栖息地专家蜜蜂的分布范围

华莱士的不足——对物种在地理空间中的分布缺乏足够的了解——阻碍了物种保护的实际行动，在处理昆虫物种时，这种严重的数据缺陷无处不在。考虑到人类活动对地球的影响，特别是在过去 50 年中，适当划定物种分布对其保护至关重要，但当物种的发生数据有限时，这具有挑战性。在这里，我们为最近描述的美国东南部的一只专业蜜蜂（Colletes ultravalidus Hall 和 Ascher）展示了合适的出现区域，采用仅存在的方法建模，这些方法对少量出现点具有鲁棒性。结合从在线提交用于识别的图像中提取的新公民科学数据点增强了物种分布模型，从而验证了新站点是否适合该物种。考虑到缺失点，即尽管对 Colletes 和其他专业蜜蜂进行了大量调查但没有记录该物种的地点，可以得出更精确的预测，可以为未来对这种蜜蜂的搜索提供信息。这项研究举例说明了公民科学项目如何有助于提高对物种生物地理范围的理解，从而克服华莱士的不足。讨论了在对非专家获得的事件建模之前和之后进行批判性评估的必要性。考虑到缺失点，即尽管对 Colletes 和其他专业蜜蜂进行了大量调查但没有记录该物种的地点，可以得出更精确的预测，可以为未来对这种蜜蜂的搜索提供信息。这项研究举例说明了公民科学项目如何有助于提高对物种生物地理范围的理解，从而克服华莱士的不足。讨论了在对非专家获得的事件建模之前和之后进行批判性评估的必要性。考虑到缺失点，即尽管对 Colletes 和其他专业蜜蜂进行了大量调查但没有记录该物种的地点，可以得出更精确的预测，可以为未来对这种蜜蜂的搜索提供信息。这项研究举例说明了公民科学项目如何有助于提高对物种生物地理范围的理解，从而克服华莱士的不足。讨论了在对非专家获得的事件建模之前和之后进行批判性评估的必要性。这项研究举例说明了公民科学项目如何有助于提高对物种生物地理范围的理解，从而克服华莱士的不足。讨论了在对非专家获得的事件建模之前和之后进行批判性评估的必要性。这项研究举例说明了公民科学项目如何有助于提高对物种生物地理范围的理解，从而克服华莱士的不足。讨论了在对非专家获得的事件建模之前和之后进行批判性评估的必要性。