Identifying insects First author Linta Antony from Trinity College Dublin collects insects for the study. (Courtesy: Sibin Leo)"> Identifying insects First author Linta Antony from Trinity College Dublin collects insects for the study. (Courtesy: Sibin Leo) Pollinating insects form a vital part of any ecosystem, enabling the biodiversity that we see on Earth today. However, biodiversity is in rapid decline around the world, and monitoring insect species is a difficult task that often requires some insects to be killed. To support the conservation of biodiversity, which is critical to ensure the sustainability of human civilization, more robust monitoring is required. In a study published in PNAS Nexus , researchers have developed a new method to identify and classify individual insects, based on radar imaging and machine learning. Radar has long been used to study migrating insects that fly at high altitudes and in large numbers, but such systems typically perform wide-area, long-range monitoring.…