An Effective and Affordable Camera Trap for Monitoring Flower-visiting Butterflies in Sandhills: with Implications for the Frosted Elfin (Callophrys irus)

McElveen, Dave; Meyer, Robert T.

doi:10.26786/1920-7603(2020)573

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…Numerous technologies are under investigation for monitoring pollinators. For example, camera systems include off-the-shelf digital products such as Apple iPod nanos (Lortie et al 2012), fixed-lens cameras (Steen 2017), camera traps (Mcelveen & Meyer 2020;Naqvi et al 2022), time-lapse cameras (Edwards et al 2015;Smith et al 2021;Alison et al 2022;Nagai et al 2022), and surveillance cameras (Steen & Thorsdatter Orvedal Aase 2011;Mertens et al 2021), as well as recent programmable microcomputers such as NVIDIA Jetson Nano (Bjerge et al 2022), Raspberry Pi (Ratnayake et al 2021(Ratnayake et al , 2023Droissart et al 2021;Bjerge et al 2023), a Luxonis microcomputer-camera capable of edge AI coupled with a Raspberry Pi (Sittinger et al 2023) and nearinfrared sensors, like those offered by FaunaPhotonics (Rydhmer et al 2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Utilising affordable smartphones and open-source time-lapse photography for monitoring pollinators

Ștefan,

Workman,

Cobain

et al. 2024

Preprint

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Monitoring plant-pollinator interactions is crucial for understanding factors that influence these relationships across space and time. While traditional methods in pollination ecology are time-consuming and resource-intensive, the growing availability of photographic technology, coupled with advancements in artificial intelligence classification, offers the potential for non-destructive and automated techniques. However, it is important that the photographs are of high enough quality to enable insects to be identified at lower taxonomic levels, preferably genus or species levels. This study assessed the feasibility of using smartphones to automatically capture images of insects visiting flowers and evaluated whether the captured images offered sufficient resolution for precise insect identification. Smartphones were positioned above target flowers from various plant species to capture time-lapse images of any flower visitor in urban green areas around Leipzig and Halle, Germany. We present the proportions of insect identifications achieved at different taxonomic levels, such as order, family, genus, and species, and discuss whether limitations stem from the automated approach (e.g., inability to observe distinguishing features in images despite high image quality) or low image quality. Practical recommendations are provided to address these challenges. Our results indicate that for bee families, nearly three quarters of all cases could be identified to genus level. Flies were more difficult, due to the small size of many individuals and the more challenging features needed for identification (e.g., in the wing veins). Overall, we suggest that smartphones are an effective tool when optimised by researchers. As technology continues to advance, smartphones are becoming increasingly accessible, affordable, and user-friendly, rendering them an appealing option for pollinator monitoring.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Utilising affordable smartphones and open-source time-lapse photography for monitoring pollinators

Ștefan,

Workman,

Cobain

et al. 2024

Preprint

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“…In a 2015 review of CT studies, most studies focused on mammals (94.7%), and on carnivores (64.7%) in particular (Burton et al, 2015). Recently, however, researchers have demonstrated the use of CTs to observe insect-plant interactions (Steen, 2017;McElveen and Meyer, 2020;Pegoraro et al, 2020;Naqvi et al, 2022). Naqvi and colleagues showed that both automatic and scheduled recordings significantly outperformed human observers in collecting data on insect pollinator interactions (Naqvi et al, 2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A chimpanzee’s time to feast: seasonality of Macrotermes flight hole activity and alate dispersal flights detected by termite-fishing experiments and camera traps in the Issa Valley, Tanzania

Phillips,

Piel,

Stewart

et al. 2023

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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IntroductionInvestigation into chimpanzee termite-fishing behavior has provided invaluable insights into the evolution of animal tool use and culture. However, research to date often overlooks how the ecology of termites may shape the nature of this predator–prey interaction. Though anecdotal links between meteorological factors, termite dispersal flights and the ability of chimpanzees to termite-fish have been made, these relationships were never empirically tested. In this study, we examined if and how the reproductive ecology of mound building termites (Macrotermes subhyalinus) affects the availability of this resource to termite-fishing chimpanzees in the Issa Valley, Tanzania.MethodsWe utilized in-person termite-fishing experiments, remote camera trap footage, as well as meteorological data to model both the availability of termite prey across seasons for chimpanzees as well as the timing of dispersal flights of the termite reproductive caste (alates). Additionally, we describe the predator diversity that characterizes alate swarming events during their seasonal dispersal flights.ResultsWe identify strong relationships between meteorological factors, Macrotermes alate dispersal flights and vulnerability of the colony to predation. As rainfall accumulates, Macrotermes become more abundant in their flight holes and are thus more vulnerable to researcher termite-fishing experiments. This increased accessibility to Macrotermes continues until alate dispersal flights which we also find are linked to cumulative rainfall as well as negatively correlated to wind speed.DiscussionThis type of baseline data on Macrotermes ecology is fundamental when forming hypotheses and designing studies into topics such as chimpanzee culture, tool-use, and foraging cognition.

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Towards a multisensor station for automated biodiversity monitoring

Wägele

Bodesheim

Bourlat

et al. 2022

Basic and Applied Ecology

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An Effective and Affordable Camera Trap for Monitoring Flower-visiting Butterflies in Sandhills: with Implications for the Frosted Elfin (Callophrys irus)

Cited by 4 publications

References 13 publications

Utilising affordable smartphones and open-source time-lapse photography for monitoring pollinators

Utilising affordable smartphones and open-source time-lapse photography for monitoring pollinators

A chimpanzee’s time to feast: seasonality of Macrotermes flight hole activity and alate dispersal flights detected by termite-fishing experiments and camera traps in the Issa Valley, Tanzania

Towards a multisensor station for automated biodiversity monitoring

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