Local community involvement as a fast and effective way of monitoring invasive species in developing countries

The rapid spread of the non-native species Harmonia axyridis in Algeria has the potential to harm local biodiversity, create new challenges for natural resources management, and impact economies. Through an investigation on social media and a citizen science platform, three new occurrences of this species have been discovered in different parts of the country, with one location being over 400km away from the first record. This highlights the important role of citizen science in the detection and for the spread monitoring of invasive species in developing countries where funding for research in this field is limited.