Abai, MR

6th International Congress of DipterologyArtificial neural networks for insect identificationVaňhara J. (1), N. Muráriková (1), P. Fedor (2), I. Malenovský (3) & J. Havel (4)(1) Masaryk University, Faculty of Science, Institute of Botany and Zoology, Kotlářská 2,611 37 Brno, Czech Republic; vanhara@sci.muni.cz; nmurarikova@yahoo.com(2) Comenius University, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Department of Ecosozology,Mlynská dolina, 842 15 Bratislava, Slovakia, fedor@fns.uniba.sk(3) Moravian Museum, Department of Entomology, Hviezdoslavova 29a, 627 00 Brno,Czech Republic; imalenovsky@mzm.cz(4) Masaryk University, Faculty of Science, Department of Analytical Chemistry,Kotlářská 2, 611 37 Brno, Czech Republic; havel@chemi.muni.cz; fax: +420-549492 494ANN have already been very rarely applied for identifying of insects.We developed, tested and applied the ANN methodology at three differentinsect orders:I. Diptera – Tachinidae: The objects were primarily photographed,then digitalized; consequently the picture was scaled. The variables usedwere length of wing veins and widths of antennal segments. There were 17characters studied, particularly in males and females (Tachina), or in rightor left wings (Ectophasia). Right and left wings data are interchangeableand data from one wing are sufficient. Additionally, the sex of the studiedspecimens was included. It was shown that classification using ANN waspossible assuming sufficiently high number of specimens of each speciesin the “training set”.II. Thysanoptera – Thripidae: The three species of Dendrothripswere characterized by 20 quantitative and three binary characters, and bysex. The optimum ANN architecture was found from the data setcontaining 74, 75, and 14 specimens. It enabled a 100% correctclassification. The prediction of unknown species was 99-99.8%. Thus,reliable characters were found and the model provided a fast identificationtool.III. Hemiptera – Psylloidea – Phacopteronidae: Adults of up to tenspecies of the genus Pseudophacopteron were measured (17 characters onforewings, antenna, head and hind legs), and sex as the 18 th variable wereused. In spite of a limited number (7-14) of specimens of each species, the289