Occurrences of protected species of insects in Italy

This dataset contains occurrence records of protected species of insects observed in Italy. The data were collected through a citizen science initiative involving volunteers who contributed their observations with the aim of documenting and monitoring the distribution of the target species throughout the country, for the requirements of Articles 11 and 17 of the Habitats Directive. This initiative was developed, launched and initially funded through the LIFE11 NAT/IT/000252 project, titled “Monitoring of insects with public participation” (MIPP) which ran from 2012 to 2017. After the conclusion of the MIPP project, the citizen science initiative continued under national agreements, was rebranded as "InNat" and was concluded in 2024. The target species were 30 species of protected insects. The observations were made by volunteers and each record includes the date and location of the observation, the species identified and a photograph of the insect (with a few exceptions where records lack photos). The dataset contains 5975 records. The data gathered provided a significative improvement in the knowedge of the species distribution, information on the ecology of the target species at national level and insights for conservation actions (Campanaro et al. 2017, Zapponi et al. 2017, Redolfi De Zan et al. 2023)