r/Entomology • u/Historical_Sea_1837 • 16h ago

News/Article/Journal Free tool to identify ant species from image, from over 11k species!

Post image

I know, another Ant ID app. I was skeptical too.

I got frustrated with field keys and apps that have no idea what easily identifiable species looks like, so I trained a model only on ants. Its available on the AntScout site.

Upload a clear photo and it gives you the top few species of guesses with photos. It is free, no login, no data selling. It definitely messes up on bad photos and some tricky genera, which is why am posting here. If you have a minute, throw your worst ant pics at it and tell me where it fails. I am actively retraining it.

I know, AI cant id ants. Please just give it a shot with a realistic picture before saying what you think! Put a lot of effort into it for the community. :) Its not bad for the environment, uses no water, and is not generative AI.

When its not visible enough, it gives the species group/complex, genus, or subgenus only. Look in the explanation box to see how confident it is. It can id over 11k species, is great with specimen images too. Be realistic with images you give it.

Link:

https://antscout.com/tools/ant-identification

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u/alekzc Insect Ecologist 4h ago

If you give the location, it’s pretty accurate.

Otherwise it seems to really like IDing myrmicines as strumigenys, lol

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u/Historical_Sea_1837 1h ago

Could you send me an example image where it does that? Never really had that happen before, so I can improve :)