Saha Topu, Genoud Adrien P, Williams Gregory M, Russell Gareth J, Thomas Benjamin P
Department of Physics, New Jersey Institute of Technology, University Heights, Newark, NJ 07102, USA.
Centre national de la recherche scientifique, Institut Lumière Matière, Universite Claude Bernard Lyon 1, UMR5306, F-69622 Villeurbanne, France.
Insects. 2024 Aug 1;15(8):584. doi: 10.3390/insects15080584.
Optical sensors have shown significant promise in offering additional data to track insect populations. This article presents a comparative study between abundance measurements obtained from a novel near-infrared optical sensor and physical traps. The optical instrument, named an Entomological Bistatic Optical Sensor System, or eBoss, is a non-destructive sensor operating in the near-infrared spectral range and designed to continuously monitor the population of flying insects. The research compares the mosquito aerial density (#/m) obtained through the eBoss with trap counts from eight physical traps during an eight-month field study. The eBoss recorded over 302,000 insect sightings and assessed the aerial density of all airborne insects as well as male and female mosquitoes specifically with a resolution of one minute. This capability allows for monitoring population trends throughout the season as well as daily activity peaks. The results affirmed the correlation between the two methods. While optical instruments do not match traps in terms of taxonomic accuracy, the eBoss offered greater temporal resolution (one minute versus roughly three days) and statistical significance owing to its much larger sample size. These outcomes further indicate that entomological optical sensors can provide valuable complementary data to more common methods to monitor flying insect populations, such as mosquitoes or pollinators.
光学传感器在提供额外数据以追踪昆虫种群方面已显示出巨大潜力。本文介绍了一项对新型近红外光学传感器与物理诱捕器所获丰度测量结果的比较研究。该光学仪器名为昆虫双基地光学传感器系统（Entomological Bistatic Optical Sensor System，简称eBoss），是一种在近红外光谱范围内运行的非破坏性传感器，旨在持续监测飞行昆虫的种群数量。这项研究在为期八个月的实地研究中，将通过eBoss获得的蚊子空中密度（#/m）与八个物理诱捕器的捕获数量进行了比较。eBoss记录了超过302,000次昆虫观测，并以一分钟的分辨率评估了所有空中昆虫以及特定的雄性和雌性蚊子的空中密度。这种能力有助于监测整个季节的种群趋势以及每日活动高峰。结果证实了两种方法之间的相关性。虽然光学仪器在分类准确性方面无法与诱捕器相比，但由于样本量更大，eBoss提供了更高的时间分辨率（一分钟对大约三天）和统计显著性。这些结果进一步表明，昆虫学光学传感器可以为监测飞行昆虫种群（如蚊子或传粉者）的更常见方法提供有价值的补充数据。
