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. <br> 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.

本数据集包含两种具有重大经济危害的蓟马（thrip）的显微图像：西花蓟马（Western Flower thrips，*Frankliniella occidentalis*，简称WFTs）与灾变蓟马（Plague thrips，*Thrips imaginis*）。这类昆虫体型微小（体长约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小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月期间，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。样本采集方式包括草莓花采样与粘虫板诱集两种。单只蓟马的图像通过手持式DinoLite USB数码显微镜拍摄获取。研究团队参照新南威尔士州 primary industries 部门（NSW Department of Primary Industries）官网发布的操作指南，结合西花蓟马与灾变蓟马的分类鉴定检索表完成蓟马图像的标注工作。
本数据集共包含536张单只蓟马的显微图像，更多细节请参见研究摘要。