Our tenth anniversary
Our tenth anniversary!
The izeltlabuak.hu website primarily focuses on arthropods found in Hungary. This entry also deals with Hungarian fauna.
Exactly ten years ago, on 20 February 2016, we launched the izeltlabuak.hu website.
Our aim was to provide comprehensive and reliable information on Hungary's arthropods and to run a community-based data-recording platform. We wanted recording and the availability and use of data to remain free and open.
We started by publishing the updated Hungarian species list for true bugs and the associated observations. Other groups were then added step by step, along with the features that are available today.
What happened over the ten years?
Nearly 6,000 nature enthusiasts, photographers and researchers now build and enrich the platform: they record observations and identify them.
Thanks to that, we can explore Hungary's arthropod fauna together. Behind the category overview, map view and phenological data there are 14,000 species, over 567,000 observations and more than 960,000 photos.
Since July 2024 our data have also been available on GBIF, so they can be used for international research and conservation.
Our database has already supported many institutions and projects: Ministry of Agriculture habitat conservation reporting, WWF and IUCN projects, and scientific and outreach publications.
We have presented protected species and made the Fauna Hungariae - The Fauna of Hungary volumes available.
Behind the badge system, events and projects (e.g. European Moth Nights, National Moth Week), data export and FAIR principles stands the same goal as ten years ago: services stay free, data remain public and transparently reusable. In this way we can contribute to species conservation and to strengthening the connection between the natural world and people.
Thank you! Without you, this platform could not exist. Every uploaded observation, every identification, every shared photo and determination means someone freely giving their time and attention to learning about Hungary's arthropod fauna. That is something we truly value. Over the ten years we have built together, all of this has been thanks to your voluntary citizen science work.
We look forward to the next decade with you. Grateful thanks!
