Introducing LepNet – the Lepidoptera of North America Network

Please

@taxonbytes

Nico Franz1 & Anne Basham1

Neil Cobb2 & Benjamin Brandt2

1 School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University2 Biological Sciences, Northern Arizona University

TDWG 2016 – Biodiversity Information Standards

December 09, 2016 – Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica (#TDWG16)

@ http://www.slideshare.net/taxonbytes/Franz-et-al-tdwg-2016-introducing-lepnet

http://symbiota4.acis.ufl.edu/scan/lepnet/portal/

Project Goals1,704,161 Total specimen records   214,705 Total specimens imaged

(1) Digitize 1.7 million adult specimens and 33,524 larval vial records, integrate >1 million existing lepidopteran records, totaling 2.7 million occurrence records.

(2) Produce high-resolution species exemplar images for 81,000 specimens representing at least 60% of the 14,300+ North American Lepidoptera species.

(3) (LepSnap) computer identification and smartphone application for researcher volunteers to image cataloged specimens and add >160,000 images beyond the high-resolution species exemplars.

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Funding Preparation Period Funding Period

SCAN as a facilitator

"LepNet-based data will facilitate comparative studies of the evolution and ecology of Lepidoptera"

80% of butterflies 70% of large moths (macros) 55% of small moths (micros)

LepSnap : Automated Identification of Taxa

6,870 North American species

Huge Potential for Identification from Images

• Engage & Augment Human experts

• Connect with citizen scientists in the museum and the field (observations)

• How many Lepidoptera can be identified?

LepSnap

LepXplor Education-Outreach Program

LepNet 2016-2017: Identifying ConnectionsBroader Vision: Lepidoptera as Model for Global Biodiversity Collaborative