TEOSS «The European Orthoptera Sound System» is an on-going project (2024-2025) that aims to develop training for recording Orthoptera sound productions in Europe. TEOSS group is a joint organization between organizations located in the three main Mediterranean Peninsulas in Europe: the Genal Field Station / AEA El Bosque Animado (Spain), WBA: the World Biodiversity Association (Italy) and the Biodiversity Conservation Lab at University of Ioannina (Greece).
Psophus stridulus. Roberto Scherini.
This project has funded by TETTRIs Consortium (*) and is led by non TETTRIS members in what is called Third-Party Projects. More precisely TEOSS responds to Topic 4. The co-development of AI-based sound recognition of European grasshoppers. In summary, The projects should help to showcase that training professional and non-professional taxonomists in collecting sound recordings can help improve the model.
(*) The Horizon Europe Project Transforming European Taxonomy through Training, Research and Innovation (TETTRIs) is a joint effort of 17 partners tackling the shortage of taxonomic experts and resources in tools, training, and access to funding. As an EU funded project TETTRIs is co-led by RBINS and CETAF (acting as main contact point for 3PP Call). TETTRIs aims to enhance the understanding of the diversity of life on Earth through research, training, and innovation in taxonomy, particularly in European biodiversity hotspots and protected areas.
TEOSS logo uses the beautiful image of Roberto Scherini. Thank you!
TEOSS works in close relation with Naturalis Museum scientists which are develop Machine learning tools for sound recognition. TEOSS aims at improving Orthoptera recognition in Europe based on sound recordings.
1- We will organize four international workshops, one in each European Mediterranean peninsula. Training includes a practical syllabus for recording high quality Orthoptera sounds and intensive field work for collecting numerous samples.
2- Expert taxonomists will identify individuals with collected sounds, a most critical step for
establishing reference collection. Raw data will be published in online biodiversity platforms and remain widely available.
3- We will feed EOSS with public libraries and update its taxonomic coverage. Activity of trainees and new members of EOSS community will be triggered through social media and scientific meetings, such as the European Congress on Orthoptera Conservation.
4- Machine learning (AI) will be further trained on TEOSS in collaboration with the TETTRIs consultants.
Location: Mediterranean Basin biodiversity hotspot (Myers, 2000). European Mediterranean peninsulas (Iberia, Italian, Balkans): Spain, Italy, Greece. Alpine region (Northern Italy). Those areas are especially important for arthropod biodiversity in general and especially for Orthoptera (Kenyeres et al., 2009).
- Spain: Andalusia. Workshop organized in the Genal Field Station, a NGO biodiversity center located in the Genal Valley, surrounded by Strait of Gibraltar NP, Los Alcornocales NP, Grazalema NP, Sierra de Las Nieves NP, Sierra Bermeja. More than 100 species, numerous West Mediterranean endemics, especially rich for Ensifera.
- Italy: The workshop will be organized in Verona (Northern Italy) by WBA Project srl. The event will coincide with the fourth European Congress on Orthoptera Conservation and field work will explore the Alpine and Mediterranean areas.
- Greece: The venue will be in the Epirus region, e.g. in the heart of N Pindos National Park and Vikos-Aoos Unesco Global Geopark, boosting a rich Orthoptera fauna.
Gryllus campestris. Roberto Scherini.
Objectives of the project
It is estimated that 1,082 Orthoptera species are native to Europe (European Red List, 2016).
Mediterranean peninsulas (Iberia, Italian, Balkans) and Alpine region are identified as biodiversity hotspot for Orthoptera in Europe (Kenyeres et al., 2009).
Among insects, Grasshoppers, Crickets and Bush-crickets are notorious for the use of stridulation and sound production in communication and reproductive behaviour.
In some cases, sister species are better identified by their sounds than by their external morphology (e.g. Chorthippus biguttulus-brunneus-mollis group).
From this background, we can conclude that:
A) Identification by sound recognition only is possible for trained experts, but still very limited among enthusiasts. Orthoptera citizen science schemes would benefit from algorithms suggesting identification.
B) Bioacoustics is a major tool for taxonomical research and for the detection of new Orthoptera species in Europe.
The quality and geographical coverage of the algorithm largely depends on the availability of training data. Typically a loop of positive feedback establishes : recorders can help improve the model with their participation, then more training data becomes available, which in turn improves an updated version of the model, resulting in more interested users. Our approach is to focus on the capacity of recorders to provide samples to trigger this loop.
– The courses will be addressed to professional and non-professional taxonomists, which have already experience with Orthoptera.
– The teaching will focus on collecting sound recordings to build the capacity of sound recording in 2024 and 2025.
– The training will be the most practical and include sound-based identification of grasshoppers and collection of sound data using open access websites (xeno-canto.org, observation.org and other existing platforms ready to collaborate with export of their records).
Improving Orthoptera recognition in Europe based on sound recordings and colaborative science.
TEOSS consortium is a gathering of entities active in the study and the dissemination of Orthoptera diversity, nearly all of them based in the Mediterranean area and more precisely in each of the European peninsulas within the Mediterranean region. The consortium offers a variety of complementary fields of actions within the Natural Sciences.
It must be noted that an international workshop on Orthoptera identification, including sound recognition, was held in July 2023 in Konitsa (Greece), organized by one of the project’s partners (University of Ioannina), with the participation of trainers specialized in bioacoustics (Baudewijn Odé) which are part of this project. The partners are already linked together through their participation in the European Congress of Orthoptera Conservation and the connection with the IUCN Grasshopper Specialist Group involved in the European Red List of Orthoptera.
Genal Field Station / AEA El Bosque Animado
BACKGROUND
NGO dedicated to citizen science and environmental education
– Biodiversity studies in Betic mountains.
– Survey of the enigmatic Pterolepis cordubensis.
– Involvement in the recent IUCN European Red List.
– We participate to the European Congress of Orthoptera Conservation.
OTHER:
– We organize workshops on Andalusian biodiversity.
– Through the Andalusian Dragonflies Recording Scheme, we have developed the metadatabase «Iberian Atlas of Odonata».
– We organize 2024 European Congress of Odonatology.
ROLE IN PROJECT:
We will supervise the overall development of the project, making sure all actions are correctly executed. We will coordinate the partners and participants so that organization and training run smoothly in a positive working ambiance. We will directly organize the training events in Spain and animate a network of volunteers interested in recording Orthoptera sounds in the field. We will assume the administrative workload and the financial survey.
Additional involvement of Spanish workers: young Orthoptera specialists such as Miguel DOMENECH, Ginés RODRÍGUEZ; Julio RABADÁN, coordinator of Obsevation.org platform in Spain, and BIODIVERSIDAD VIRTUAL, pioneer Spanish web platform dedicated to citizen science and arthropods.
University of Ioannina Dep. of Biological Applications and Technology, Biodiversity Conservation Lab (Greece)
Website: https://bc.lab.uoi.gr/en/home/
Principal Investigator/ Project Lead: Kati VASSILIKI
BACKGROUND
Professor of Biodiversity Conservation and conservation biologist with long research experience in entomology and conservation projects for wildlife and protected areas. Having chaired the education committee of the Society for Conservation Biology in Europe (Board member) and having organized the first international summer school on conservation biology for five years, as well as
the Orthoptera summer school (2022), the PI has the experience to organize the workshop successfully. She works with animal taxa and runs many research projects on Orthoptera – see
https://bc.lab.uoi.gr/en/
For the full profile of the Lab I run (BCL) and PI’s CV, please visit https://bc.lab.uoi.gr/en/xxx
DocuSign Envelope ID: 55B6E02A-0E1D-4C9A-88F5-
ROLE IN PROJECT
We will coordinate and organize the workshop in Greece for training young people in recording Orthoptera sounds in the field. We will undertake the relevant administrative burden as well. We have previous experience, as we have organized the first summer school on orthoptera taxonomy and conservation in 2022 that hosted 20 participants all over Europe and offered a lifetime experience to young entomologists.
Additional involvement. Apostolis Stefanidis is a PhD student running his thesis on endemic Orthoptera. Konstantina Nasiou is going to start her PhD on high mountain orthoptera and butterfly communities. Both PhD candidates will be actively involved in the workshop organization. Dr. Konstantina Zografou is also an expert on entomology (butterflies and grasshoppers) and she will be involved in the project coordination.
World Biodiversity Association (WBA), Verona (Italy)
Website: https://
Principal Investigator/ Project Lead: Filippo Maria BUZZETTTI
BACKGROUND
By means of the Project Re.Mi.M.Ba. (Research Missions in the Mediterranean Basin) the naturalists of the WBA in more than one decade of investigations discovered and described more than one hundred species new to science in the Mediterranean area.
ROLE IN PROJECT
Host and coordination of the Bioacoustic workshop after the ECOC IV (Rovereto).
Additional involvement. Filippo Maria Buzzetti works on Bioacoustics, taxonomy, ecology and ethology of Orthoptera.
IUCN SPECIALIST GROUP
IUCN Grasshopper Specialist Group gathers 112 experts on grasshoppers, crickets, bush-crickets, mantids and stickinsects from 44 countries, who are interested in the conservation of these insects. Assistance to the project as a scientific committee and spreading the information to the European Orthoptera community in order to make sure the training course will be attended by the most serious students in Europe. The group will play a role in facilitating the participation of Orthopterists in the project (workshops) and promote the sharing of existing Orthoptera recordings to increase the database. The teachers for the workshop are also linked to this IUCN Species Specialist Group.
Baudewijn ODÉ is working on the bioacoustics of grasshoppers (incl. bush-crickets and crickets), already forsome 30 years and specialized in European grasshopper songs. He also has been an author and coordinator of the recent European Red List.
