Contact
Tomas Roslin, Professor Insect Ecology
Department of Ecology, SLU
tomas.roslin@slu.se 018-672383
A technological revolution in insect research
Last changed: 06 May 2024
Insects are the most diverse group of animals on Earth, but current knowledge of insect diversity, ecology and population trends remains extremely poor. During the last few years, a series of technological breakthroughs has revolutionised insect research and environmental monitoring. Artificial intelligence helps handling the large amounts of data involved.
A special issue of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B describes recent developments in technologies based on large-scale analysis of DNA, images, sounds and flight patterns (using radar). Artificial intelligence helps handling the large amounts of data involved.
Press material is available here. Images may be used in conjunction with articles on the content of the theme issue. Please credit the photographer.
The AMI (Automated Monitoring of Insects) system is a platform for the autonomous monitoring of moths. The system combines robust lighting for attracting insects with high-resolution cameras, and individual moths are then assigned to species using automated classifiers. The system has so far been deployed in the UK, Canada, USA, EU, Panama, Argentina, Singapore-- and here in Costa Rica.
Photo: Jenna Louise Lawson
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Most insects on the globe are small and hard to tell apart. To make sense of of massive insect samples (here sampled by sticky traps in the Arctic), researchers are sequencing the DNA of each individual insect.
Photo: Tuomas Kankaapää
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Tropical forest are buzzing with insect sounds. Autonomous audiorecorders allow us to eaves-drop on the insects across very many sites at the same time, whereas computers enable the assignment of the sounds thus recorded to insect groups or even species.
Photo: Leandro Nascimento
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One of the most efficient traps for sampling insects was invented by the Swedish entomologist René Malaise. He got the idea by watching insects getting trapped in a tent accidentally left open. The trap will collect thousands of insects , and the only way to make sense of them all is to use DNA metabarcoding.
Photo: Piotr Lukasic
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Diptera (flies and midges) is one of the largest insect groups. To date, some 125 000 species have been described by science -- but their true numbers are likely more than a million species.
Photo: Piotr Lukasic