InsectNet App Offers Insect ID for Farmers

A new InsectNet app developed by Iowa State University provides identification and predictions for more than 2,500 insect species worldwide at more than 96% accuracy. A farmer can snap a picture and use a smartphone or computer to feed the photo into the app for predicted taxonomic identification and real-time information on whether the insect is a pest, predator, pollinator, parasitoid, decomposer, herbivore, indicator, or invasive species. InsectNet is backed by a dataset of 12 million insect images, including many collected by citizen-scientists. The open-source app can be geographically fine-tuned using expert-verified local and regional datasets. The app is running on a server at Iowa State University and users can upload insect pictures using a QR code or URL.