A method for real-time classification of insect vectors of mosaic and brown streak disease in cassava plants for future implementation within a low-cost, handheld, in-field multispectral imaging sensor.

Background: The paper introduces a multispectral imaging system and data-processing approach for the identification and discrimination of morphologically indistinguishable cryptic species of the destructive crop pest, the whitefly . This investigation and the corresponding system design, was undertaken in two phases under controlled laboratory conditions. The first exploited a prototype benchtop variant of the proposed sensor system to analyse four cryptic species of whitefly reared under similar conditions.