imageomics/Hawaii-beetles

Dataset Card for Hawaii_Beetles

Dataset Details

Dataset Description

This dataset contains 1614 high-resolution PNG images of individual ground-beetle specimens across 14 different (Coleoptera : Carabidae) species collected by the U.S. National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON).

Key Uses

• species-level classification or retrieval
• object detection / instance segmentation on natural-history collections
• automated extraction of morphological traits (elytra length)
• ecological modelling via linkage to NEON environmental streams

Dataset Structure

/group_images
    IMG_<id>.png
    ...
/individual_specimens
    IMG_<id>_specimen_<number>_<taxonID>_<individualID>.png
    ...

images_metadata.csv
trait_annotations.csv

README.md

Data Fields

images_metadata.csv:

• groupImageFilePath: Path to grouped beetle images. e.g., group_images/IMG_<id>.png where IMG_<id> is the image name assigned by the camera roll.
• individualImageFilePath: Path to the individually cropped beetle image, e.g., individual_specimens/IMG_<id>_specimen_<number>_<taxonID>_<individualID>.png, where <id> matches the group image and <number> indicates the beetle's position within that group image.
• individualID: Unique identification number assigned to each individual beetle. This begins with NEON_BET.D20 to show that the unique ID corresponds to a beetle from the National Ecological Observatory Network's Domain 20, followed by six digits.
• taxonID: All pinned beetles in this dataset have been identified to genus and species. Here a six-letter code is given specifiying the first three letters of the genus followed by the first three letters of the specific epithet.
• ScientificName: Binomial scientific name of the specimen.
• plotID: A code that corresponds to the NEON plot in which the individual beetle was collected.
• trapID: The cardinal direction (E - east, S - south, W - west) indicating which side of the plot the beetle was collected from.
• plotTrapID: A three letter code that corresponds to the NEON plot in which the individual beetle was collected along with direction.
• collectDate: The date of field collection of the pitfall trap from which NEON staff collected the beetle specimen. It follows the YYYYMMDD format.
• ownerInstitutionCode: NEON owner code
• catalogNumber: NEON catalog number

trait_annotations.csv:

• groupImageFilePath: File path to grouped beetle specimen images. Format: group_images/IMG_<id>.png, where IMG_<id> corresponds to the unique image identifier assigned by the camera system.
• BeetlePosition: Ordinal position of the individual beetle specimen within the group image (dorsal view). Specimens are numbered sequentially from top to bottom: topmost specimen = 1, subsequent specimens = 2, 3, 4, etc.
• individualID: Unique identifier for each individual beetle specimen, derived from the combination of ImageFilePath and BeetlePosition values.
• coords_scalebar: X and Y coordinate pairs defining the endpoints of the 1 cm reference scalebar, positioned in the upper or upper-left portion of each image.
• coords_elytra_max_length: X and Y coordinate pairs defining the endpoints of the maximum elytral length measurement. Measured from the midpoint of the elytro-pronotal suture (junction between pronotum and elytra) to the midpoint of the elytral apex (posterior terminus of the elytra).
• coords_basal_pronotum_width: X and Y coordinate pairs defining the endpoints of the basal pronotal width measurement at the elytro-pronotal junction.
• coords_elytra_max_width: X and Y coordinate pairs defining the endpoints of the maximum elytral width measurement. Represents the greatest transverse distance across both elytra, measured orthogonal to the elytral length axis.
• px_scalebar: Euclidean distance between coordinate endpoints of the reference scalebar (coords_scalebar) expressed in pixels.
• px_elytra_max_length: Euclidean distance between coordinate endpoints of the maximum elytral length (coords_elytra_max_length) expressed in pixels.
• px_basal_pronotum_width: Euclidean distance between coordinate endpoints of the basal pronotal width (coords_basal_pronotum_width) expressed in pixels.
• px_elytra_max_width: Euclidean distance between coordinate endpoints of the maximum elytral width (coords_elytra_max_width) expressed in pixels.
• cm_scalebar: Calibrated length of the reference scalebar in centimeters. Constant value of 1.0 cm as this represents the standard reference scale used for all measurements.
• cm_elytra_max_length: Calibrated maximum elytral length in centimeters, calculated by converting pixel measurements using the scalebar calibration factor.
• cm_basal_pronotum_width: Calibrated basal pronotal width in centimeters at the elytro-pronotal suture, calculated by converting pixel measurements using the scalebar calibration factor.
• cm_elytra_max_width: Calibrated maximum elytral width in centimeters, representing the greatest transverse dimension across the fused elytra, calculated by converting pixel measurements using the scalebar calibration factor.

Dataset Creation

This dataset was compiled as part of the field component of the Experiential Introduction to AI and Ecology Course run by the Imageomics Institute and the AI and Biodiversity Change (ABC) Global Climate Center. This field work was done on the island of Hawai'i January 15-29, 2025.

Curation Rationale

Ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae) serve as critical bioindicators for ecosystem health, providing valuable insights into biodiversity shifts driven by environmental changes. Understanding their distribution, morphological traits, and responses to environmental conditions is essential for ecological research and conservation efforts. While the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) maintains an extensive collection of carabid specimens, these primarily exist as physical collections, restricting widespread research access and large-scale analysis. Despite the ecological significance of invertebrates, global trait databases remain heavily biased toward vertebrates and plants, leaving a critical “invertebrate gap” that hinders comprehensive ecological analyses, particularly for hyper-diverse groups like carabids. Existing beetle datasets lack standardized, high-resolution trait measurements like those provided here, limiting trait-based ecological studies. Morphological traits, such as elytra length and width, are paramount because they directly link to ecological processes like dispersal, niche partitioning, and responses to environmental stressors, enabling predictive modeling of biodiversity under global change.

Source Data

The specimens come from the PUUM NEON site. For more information about general NEON data, please see their Ground beetles sampled from pitfall traps page.

Our team photographed the beetles in 2025, using Canon EOS DSLR (model 7D).

Data Collection and Processing

Beetles were collected by PUUM NEON field technicians from 2018 through 2024.

Specimens and identification are provided by NEON Ground beetles sampled from pitfall traps

Personal and Sensitive Information

Our data does not contain any personal and sensitive Information.

Licensing Information

Images and associated metadata: Creative Commons BY 4.0.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by both the Imageomics Institute and the AI and Biodiversity Change (ABC) Global Center. The Imageomics Institute is funded by the US National Science Foundation's Harnessing the Data Revolution (HDR) program under Award #2118240 (Imageomics: A New Frontier of Biological Information Powered by Knowledge-Guided Machine Learning). The ABC Global Center is funded by the US National Science Foundation under Award No. 2330423 and Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada under Award No. 585136.

S. Record and A. East were additionally supported by the US National Science Foundation's Award No. 242918 and by Hatch project Award #MEO-022425 from the US Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

This material is based in part upon work supported by the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON), a program sponsored by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and operated under cooperative agreement by Battelle.

Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the US National Science Foundation, the US Department of Agriculture, or Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.