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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Gainesville, Florida » Center for Medical, Agricultural and Veterinary Entomology » Insect Behavior and Biocontrol Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #200552
Title: Field testing of a prototype acoustic device for detection of Mediterranean fruit flies flying into a trap

Author
item Mankin, Richard
item MACHAN, R - SIGMA SPACE CORP, MD
item JONES, R - SIGMA SPACE CORP, MD

Submitted to: Fruit Flies of Economic Importance International Symposium
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/11/2006
Publication Date: 9/15/2006
Citation: Mankin, R.W., Machan, R., Jones, R. 2006. Field testing of a prototype acoustic device for detection of Mediterranean fruit flies flying into a trap. In: Proceedings of the 7th International Symposium on Fruit Flies of Economic Importance, September 10-15, 2006, Salvador, Brazil. p 165-169.

Interpretive Summary: Detecting invasive fruit flies through efficient traps is critical to protecting USA agriculture. Scientists at the Center for Medical, Agricultural, and Veterinary Entomology, Gainesville, FL and Sigma Space Corp., Lanham developed a prototype acoustic device for use in detection and identification of Mediterranean fruit flies entering a trap. This report describes its operation in detection of flies in a worst-case setting in high background noise. The information will be used in development of the next prototype, which is expected to be smaller in size and improved in capability. Devices developed from this prototype have considerable future potential as tools for automated monitoring of the thousands of medfly traps set out and serviced yearly in California, Florida, and other subtropical and tropical fruit-growing regions.

Technical Abstract: Worldwide, hundreds of thousands of traps are used seasonally in surveillance and mass trapping programs against the Mediterranean fruit fly, Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann). An automated system for remotely detecting and identifying trapped insects would have considerable potential for reducing the costs of servicing traps and increasing the timeliness of collected information. One of the systems under consideration includes a microphone, amplifier, and acoustic signal processing system that detects and discriminates wingbeats of insects flying into a trap. To be successful, the system must be able to reliably identify weak wingbeat signals of flying insects in a variety of environmental contexts. Here we report on a series of tests conducted with a prototype Mediterranean fruit fly detector system in a worst-case, highway noise environment.