The FAIR-Device - a non-lethal and generalist semi-automatic Malaise
trap for insect biodiversity monitoring: Proof of concept
Abstract
Field monitoring plays a crucial role in understanding insect dynamics
within ecosystems. It facilitates pest distribution assessment, control
measure evaluation, and prediction of pest outbreaks. Additionally, it
provides important information on bioindicators with which the state of
biodiversity and ecological integrity in specific habitats and
ecosystems can be accurately assessed. However, traditional monitoring
systems can present various difficulties, leading to a limited temporal
and spatial resolution of the obtained information. Despite recent
advancements in automatic insect monitoring traps, also called e-traps,
most of these systems focus exclusively on studying agricultural pests,
rendering them unsuitable for monitoring diverse insect populations. To
address this issue, we introduce the Field Automatic Insect Recognition
(FAIR)-Device, a novel non-lethal field tool that relies on
semi-automatic image capture and species identification using artificial
intelligence via the iNaturalist platform. Our objective was to develop
a low-effort, cost-effective, and non-specific monitoring solution
capable of providing high-resolution data for assessing insect
diversity. During a 26-day proof-of-concept evaluation, the FAIR-Device
recorded 24.8 GB of video, identifying 431 individuals from 9 orders, 50
families, and 69 genera. While improvements are possible, our device
demonstrated potential as a cost-effective, non-lethal tool for
monitoring insect biodiversity. Looking ahead, we envision new
monitoring systems such as e-traps as valuable tools for real-time
insect monitoring, offering unprecedented insights for ecological
research and agricultural practices.