The Future of Entomology: New Technology Revolutionizes Insect Research

Emerging technologies are transforming insect research and environmental surveillance. Utilizing AI to analyze DNA, images, sounds, and flight patterns, we can unlock novel insights into the insect world.

Recent concerns about significant declines in insect populations have prompted researchers to urgently gather data on their current status.

“So far, such data are only available for a few insect groups and for selected regions. To improve on the status quo, we need urgent assessments of all types of insects in all parts of the world,” says Roel van Klink, senior researcher at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) and the lead editor of the special issue.

Given how numerous insects are, and how hard it is to tell them apart, obtaining complete information on insect trends has remained a tall order. Now technological breakthroughs are paving the way for global insect surveys.

Thanks to technological breakthroughs, we can now use all kinds of different properties of insects to track them. For instance, many insects make sounds, which are characteristic of their species. Using cheap devices spread across the environment, we may record these sounds and then assign them to the insects that produced them. As an alternative, we may attract insects to light then photograph them and identify the images. Using radar or even laser beams, we may sense insects remotely, and identify them based on their size and their wingbeats. Finally, we may extract DNA from insects – or from their traces in the environment, including water or air – and use the sequence of their genes to record and identify them.