Entomology Program, Division of Plant and Soil Sciences, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506, USA.
Crop Protection Division, Department of Agro-food Safety and Crop Protection, National Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Wanju-gun, Jeollabuk-do 55365, Republic of Korea.
J Econ Entomol. 2021 Oct 13;114(5):1927-1933. doi: 10.1093/jee/toab060.
Current unmanned aircraft system (a.k.a. drone) technology is an effective tool for aerial survey of pests including weeds, plant diseases, and insects. This study was conducted to develop an aerial survey method that can locate cocoons of the oriental moth, Monema flavescens Walker, for precise and accurate detection of the cocoons in winter to prevent defoliation in the subsequent summer. We used a rotary-wing drone for an aerial survey of M. flavescens cocoons on 15 trees at 3-5 m above the tree canopy. We also conducted a conventional ground survey of M. flavescens cocoons on the same trees for two different conditions of cocoons: open (i.e., adult moths already emerged from cocoons) and closed (i.e., adult moths were not emerged yet). A validation census with destructive sampling was conducted to determine the precision and accuracy of the aerial and ground survey methods. The results of this study showed that from the aerial survey with the drone, images of open cocoons differed from those of closed cocoons. We found higher precision and accuracy and lower type I and II error rates for closed cocoons by the aerial survey with the drone than those by the ground survey. No significant relationships of the number of cocoons with tree height and diameter at breast height were found. This is the first study to demonstrate direct detection of insects with an aerial survey by using a drone.
目前，无人机系统（又名“无人机”）技术是进行害虫（包括杂草、植物病害和昆虫）空中调查的有效工具。本研究旨在开发一种空中调查方法，以便在冬季定位舞毒蛾的茧，从而准确、精确地探测茧，防止次年夏季发生落叶。我们使用旋翼无人机对树冠上方 3-5 米处的 15 棵树上的舞毒蛾茧进行了空中调查。我们还对同一批树上的舞毒蛾茧进行了常规的地面调查，调查的两种不同条件是：开放（即成虫已经从茧中羽化）和封闭（即成虫尚未羽化）。通过破坏性抽样进行了验证性普查，以确定空中和地面调查方法的精度和准确性。本研究结果表明，从使用无人机的空中调查中可以看出，开放茧的图像与封闭茧的图像不同。我们发现，与地面调查相比，使用无人机进行的空中调查对封闭茧的精度和准确性更高，I 型和 II 型错误率更低。我们没有发现茧的数量与树高和胸径之间存在显著关系。这是首次使用无人机通过空中调查直接探测昆虫的研究。
