Article 5 · Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/2188

Contents

Article 5Data collection protocol for bees, hoverflies, butterflies and day-active moths#

1.During the observation period set out in accordance with Article 4, Member States shall collect data on bees, hoverflies, butterflies and day-active moths on each monitoring site by undertaking transect walks.

10.The transect shall be walked in a forward direction at constant speed for a total effective observation time of 60 minutes. The observation time shall not include the time needed for catching, handling, identifying or recording of specimens.

11.Data shall be collected within the following delineated three-dimensional observation space around the person carrying out the transect walk (‘the surveyor’):

(a)for bees and hoverflies: 1,5 m to each side of the surveyor, 1,5 m ahead of the surveyor, and 1,5 m above the surveyor;

(b)for butterflies and day-active moths: 2,5 m to each side of the surveyor, 5 m ahead of the surveyor, and 5 m above the surveyor.

12.Each recording of a specimen shall be attributed to one of the ecosystem types referred to in Article 3(4), first subparagraph.

2.Transect walks shall be undertaken separately for:

(a)bees;

(b)hoverflies;

(c)butterflies and day-active moths.

3.The transect walks shall be carried out at the same monitoring site once a month during the observation period, with a minimum time interval of three weeks.

4.By way of derogation from paragraph 3, where the environmental conditions referred to in paragraph 7 are not met over an extended period of time which prevents the execution of the transect walks once per month, the transect walks may be carried out less frequently than once per month.

5.By way of derogation from paragraph 3, Member States may carry out transect walks at higher frequency at monitoring sites where the observation period is shorter than six months. In this case, the minimum time interval shall be less than three weeks.

6.For each transect walk, the following environmental parameters shall be recorded:

(a)temperature (in °C);

(b)cloud cover (in oktas);

(c)wind speed (in m/s);

(d)fog (presence/absence);

(e)precipitation (presence/absence);

(f)start time (hh:mm);

(g)any other relevant parameters that may affect the data collection.

7.Transect walks shall be undertaken under environmental conditions during which the species referred to in paragraph 1 are active at the adult stage of their lifecycle. For this purpose, for the environmental parameters listed in paragraph 6, points (a) to (f), Member States shall specify the conditions under which the transect walks are to be undertaken. Those conditions may be adapted to local circumstances and shall not be changed in the course of an assessment period.

8.The length of each transect walk shall be 1 km.

9.The same transect trajectory shall be used for bees, hoverflies, butterflies and day-active moths at each monitoring site. The transect trajectory shall be fully positioned within the boundaries of the monitoring site. The transect trajectory may be continuous or split in parts. It shall be geo-referenced and mapped before the data collection starts. Each part of the transect trajectory shall be attributed to one of the ecosystem types referred to in Article 3(4), first subparagraph. The transect trajectory on each monitoring site shall not be changed unless it becomes partly or fully inaccessible due to force majeure.