Image dataset of two morphologically close microscopic insect pest species: Western Flower Thrips and Plague Thrips

The dataset contains microscopic images of two economically devastating thrip species - Western Flower thrips (<em>Frankliniella occidentalis) (</em>WFTs<em>)</em> and Plague thrips (<em>Thrips imaginis</em>). These insects are small (∼ 1mm), exhibit minute morphological differences, and require different pest control strategies. Thus, this dataset will potentially help researchers to develop, test and evaluate automated identification systems for morphologically similar microscopic insects. To create this dataset, we collected thrip samples from a strawberry farm located at Boneo, Victoria, Australia, from December 2020 to May 2021. Thrips were collected by either sampling strawberry flowers or setting up sticky traps. The images of individual thrips were captured using a handheld DinoLite Digital Microscope (USB). We follow the guidelines provided by the NSW Department of Primary Industries website to label the thrip images based on identification keys of Western Flower Thrips and Plague Thrips. The dataset contains 536 individual thrip images and please see the abstract for more details.本数据集收录了两种具有重大经济危害的蓟马物种的显微图像——西花蓟马（Western Flower Thrips，简称WFTs，学名*Frankliniella occidentalis*）与瘟疫蓟马（学名*Thrips imaginis*）。这类昆虫体型仅约1毫米，形态差异极细微，且需采用不同的害虫防治策略。因此，本数据集可助力研究人员开发、测试并评估针对形态相似的微型昆虫的自动化识别系统。为构建本数据集，研究团队于2020年12月至2021年5月，在澳大利亚维多利亚州博尼奥（Boneo）的一处草莓农场采集蓟马样本。采集方式包括采样草莓花朵或布设粘虫板。使用手持式DinoLite数码显微镜（USB接口）拍摄单只蓟马的图像。研究团队参照新南威尔士州primary industries部门（NSW Department of Primary Industries）官网发布的指南，结合西花蓟马与瘟疫蓟马的分类检索表对蓟马图像进行标注。本数据集共包含536张单只蓟马的图像，更多细节请参见数据集摘要。