LEPMON – ELLIS Unit JENA

LEPMON - Monitoring biodiversity of moths (Lepidoptera) using automated camera traps and artificial intelligence

At the Annual Meeting 2025 of the InsectAI COST Action in Tirana, May 7 to 9, 2025, ELLIS Member and computer scientist Dr. Paul Bodesheim was elected as the new leader of Working Group 3 – Image Processing.
Researchers from more than 22 European countries participated in the election, underscoring the outstanding expertise of the team at the University of Jena in the field of digital image processing. The EU-funded COST Action InsectAI supports the monitoring and conservation of insects on both national and continental levels in order to understand and counteract the widespread decline of insect populations.
A central focus lies on the use of image recognition and AI-based insect classification methods.

The University of Jena is involved in the initiative through the LEPMON project, which focuses on assessing the biodiversity of nocturnal moths (Lepidoptera) using automated camera traps and artificial intelligence. Students from the University of Jena are already contributing to the research project. Starting in June, an IAESTE intern from India will join the team in Jena for a research internship. The Computer Vision Group looks forward to supervising further thesis and project work related to LEPMON and InsectAI in the future.

The second phase of LEPMON began with a kickoff meeting on March 31, 2025, where all team members met in person to discuss their goals and specialized tasks for the coming year. During the meeting, the new professional version of the camera light trap (KLF-Pro) was presented and discussed, setting the stage for the next level of research and development. In mid-March, the LEPMON team also presented the project at the Butterfly Conservation Symposium (March 13-14, 2025) at Helmholtz-Zentrum für Umweltforschung (UFZ) Leipzig, engaging with a specialized audience and gaining additional support ahead of the monitoring season.

Read more: https://lepmon.de/2025/05/12/lepmon-auf-der-insectai-jahrestagung-2025-in-tirana/