Researchers in Canada are using artificial intelligence to monitor the ongoing mass extinction of insects, hoping to collect data that can help reverse species collapse and avert catastrophe for the planet. “Of all the mass extinctions we have experienced in the past, the one affecting insects is happening a thousand times faster,” said Maxim Larrivee, director of the Montreal Insectarium. The decline is occurring so quickly it can’t be properly monitored, making it impossible “to put in place the necessary actions to slow it down,” he told AFP.

For the Montreal-based project, called Antenna, some of the data collection is happening inside the insectarium under a large transparent dome, where thousands of butterflies, ants and praying mantises are being studied. Solar-powered camera traps have also been installed in several regions, from the Canadian far north to Panamanian rainforests, snapping photos every 10 seconds of insects attracted to UV lights. Larrivee said innovations like high-resolution cameras, low-cost sensors and AI models to process data could double the amount of biodiversity information collected over the last 150 years in two to five years. “Even for us, it sounds like science fiction,” he said, a grin stretched across his face.

Butterfly, at the Montreal Insectarium in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Butterfly, at the Montreal Insectarium in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Insect display, at the Montreal Insectarium in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

A butterfly on a grapefruit slice, at the Montreal Insectarium in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Butterfly, at the Montreal Insectarium in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Ants carry food for a mushroom to eat., at the Montreal Insectarium in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Giant prickly stick insect, at the Montreal Insectarium in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Insect display, at the Montreal Insectarium in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

‘Tip of iceberg’

Scientists have warned the world is facing its biggest mass extinction event since the dinosaur age. The drivers of insect species collapse are well understood - including climate change, habitat loss and pesticides - but the extent and nature of insect losses have been hard to quantify. Better data should make it possible to create “decision-making tools for governments and environmentalists” to develop conservation policies that help restore biodiversity, Larrivee said.

Butterfly, at the Montreal Insectarium in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Giant African Flower Beetle, at the Montreal Insectarium in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Butterfly, at the Montreal Insectarium in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Giant African Flower Beetle, at the Montreal Insectarium in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Visitors at the Montreal Insectarium in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Portrait of Maxim Larrivée, director of the Montreal Insectarium, looking at a solar-powered terminal designed to take a photo every 10 seconds of insects attracted by UV light.

Butterfly, at the Montreal Insectarium in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Some butterflies have a numbered sticker so that they can be identified and their progress monitored, at the Montreal Insectarium in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

A Caterpillar, at the Montreal Insectarium in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

There are an estimated 10 million species of insects, representing half the world’s biodiversity, but only a million of those have been documented and studied by scientists. David Rolnick, a biodiversity specialist at the Quebec AI Institute working on the Antenna project, noted that artificial intelligence could help document some of the 90 percent of insect species that remain undiscovered. “We found that when we went to Panama and tested our sensor systems in the rainforest, within a week, we found 300 new species. And that is just the tip of the iceberg,” Rolnick told AFP.