Fire ants, or Solenopsis invicta are a havoc-wreaking, invasive species that researchers are working on creating cheaper, more effective ways to combat.
Credit: Wikimedia
SYDNEY: Researchers are developing a USB-powered insect identification system to help eradicate invasive fire ants in Queensland, and it’s hoped that the technology will one day allow people to photograph bugs on their mobile phones and use an online database to identify them.
Using the portable microscopes – existing instruments are roughly the size of a Nintendo Wii remote – field officers will capture an image of a suspected fire ant (Solenopsis invicta) and use a computer identification system to looks for specific morphologic features to identify a match.
“These identification keys are the body parts, not the entire body,” said Paul Zhang, a biosecurity researcher with National Information and Communication Technology Australia (NICTA). “Our computer program will automatically check all of the identification keys. If they are all satisfied we recommend they bring the samples back. It’s kind of like a screening system.”
Eradicating exotic invaders
Red fire ants are an invasive species that pose a social and environmental threat to Australia. Although very small – roughly two to six millimetres – the insects are quite aggressive and tend to sting people in swarms, resulting in nasty burning blisters. Their voracious feeding habits also pose a threat to indigenous ecosystems.
“Invasive ants are really intolerable to live with – and when they get into native systems they can absolutely annihilate native vegetation and fauna,” says Ben Hoffmann, an invasive ant expert with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO).
A decade-long eradication effort in Queensland is still underway to combat the further spread of these pests – and it’s hoped that this new technology will save time and money in the effort to manage them by reducing the cost of responding to false alarms.
Instant on-site imaging
The current method for responding to fire ant reports involves sending a field official to collect samples of suspect ants, then transporting them back to a lab where entomologists examine and identify them using an optical microscope.
This system has proven slow and costly - especially since a large percentage of fire ant reports are false alarms - said the NICTA researchers. The goal of the portable on-site screening system is to reduce the number of samples being returned to the lab and to improve efficiency.
“The ability to have instant identification is a fantastic development. It’s the type of thing that will give us the edge in the battle against ants,” said Hoffmann. “Time is of the essence when you’re dealing with invasive species.”
Do-it-yourself backyard identification
Moving forward, the researchers are hoping to follow the taxonomic structure to develop 3D-models of all insects – both small and large.
It is a difficult and tedious task given the number of species and identification keys for each, but it could bring this technology into your backyard.
“One of our target goals is to start focusing on bigger bugs, which will allow us to delete the microscope,” said Zhang, adding that there could be a primitive system in place in the not-too distant future that will make it possible for people to photograph insects on their mobile devices and then link these images to an online database of known species for quick identification.
