Image dataset of two morphologically close thrip species: Western Flower Thrips and Plague Thrips

The dataset contains microscopic images of two economically devastating thrip species - Western Flower thrips (Frankliniella occidentalis) (WFTs) and Plague thrips (Thrips imaginis). 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.