Helen James, Senior Curator of Natural Sciences for the National Museums NI said being able to trace the history of the species showed the importance of historic specimen collections which pre-date the data available online, the earliest being from 1894 in Portrush.
The CEDaR is Northern Ireland’s only Local Environmental Record Centre and is funded by the carrier bag levy.
Amy Laird is the Learning and Engagement Officer at CEDaR.
“We operate primarily to collate and collect records from across NI together into one central data base.
“We work with different experts, professionals and citizen scientists and then we are able to inform biodiversity, conservation, and research from that data base,” she said.
“This shows that even one record can make a big difference.
“Working with citizen scientists is essential, it covers so much more ground than members of staff can alone, they can fill in a lot of knowledge gaps.”