{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,10]],"date-time":"2026-09-10T00:01:49Z","timestamp":1788998509304,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":45,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"11","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,30]],"date-time":"2025-10-30T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1761782400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100004493","name":"International Atomic Energy Agency","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["28294"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["28294"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100004493","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Insects"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Invasive insects can cause significant economic impacts to agriculture worldwide and impact human health. Traditional pest management methods that include chemical insecticides have raised increasing environmental and health concerns, prompting the need for sustainable alternatives. The Sterile Insect Technique (SIT), which consists of releasing sterile males of a target pest to mate with wild females, is held as a promising solution. However, the success of SIT relies on the release of sterile males. The efficient separation of sexes prior to sterilization and release is necessary. This study presents SIT-ia, a software\u2013hardware system that utilizes artificial intelligence (AI) and computer vision to automate the sex-sorting process. We showcase its use with the fruit fly pest D. suzukii. The system was able to identify males from females with a 98.6% accuracy, sorting 1000 sterile flies in ~70 min, which is nearly half the time involved in manual sorting by experts (i.e., ~112 min). This simple device can easily be adopted in SIT production protocols, improving the feasibility and efficacy of improved pest management practices.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/insects16111108","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,31]],"date-time":"2025-10-31T01:23:59Z","timestamp":1761873839000},"page":"1108","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["SIT-ia: A Software-Hardware System to Improve Male Sorting Efficacy for the Sterile Insect Technique"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"16","author":[{"given":"Gerardo","family":"de la Vega","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Instituto de Investigaciones Forestales y Agropecuarias de Bariloche, Instituto Nacional de Tecnolog\u00eda Agropecuaria\u2013Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cient\u00edficas y T\u00e9cnicas (IFAB, INTA\u2013CONICET), San Carlos de Bariloche 8400, R\u00edo Negro, Argentina"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Luciano","family":"Smith","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Facultad de Ingenier\u00eda, Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA), Buenos Aires C1063ACV, Argentina"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Lihuen","family":"Soria-Mercier","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Centro Regional Universitario Bariloche, Universidad Nacional del Comahue CRUB (UNCOMA), San Carlos de Bariloche 8400, R\u00edo Negro, Argentina"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Wilson","family":"Edwards","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Servicio Nacional de Sanidad y Calidad Agroalimentaria (SENASA), Centro Regional Patagonia Norte, San Carlos de Bariloche 8400, R\u00edo Negro, Argentina"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Federico","family":"Tri\u00f1anes","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratorio de Ecolog\u00eda Qu\u00edmica, Facultad de Qu\u00edmica, Universidad de la Rep\u00fablica (UdelaR), Montevideo 11800, Uruguay"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4870-7094","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Santiago","family":"Masagu\u00e9","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratorio de Ecolog\u00eda Qu\u00edmica, Facultad de Qu\u00edmica, Universidad de la Rep\u00fablica (UdelaR), Montevideo 11800, Uruguay"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8032-2223","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Juan","family":"Corley","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Instituto de Investigaciones Forestales y Agropecuarias de Bariloche, Instituto Nacional de Tecnolog\u00eda Agropecuaria\u2013Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cient\u00edficas y T\u00e9cnicas (IFAB, INTA\u2013CONICET), San Carlos de Bariloche 8400, R\u00edo Negro, Argentina"},{"name":"Centro Regional Universitario Bariloche, Universidad Nacional del Comahue CRUB (UNCOMA), San Carlos de Bariloche 8400, R\u00edo Negro, Argentina"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,30]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"145","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jenvman.2018.05.007","article-title":"The role of invasive alien species in shaping local livelihoods and human well-being: A review","volume":"229","author":"Shackleton","year":"2019","journal-title":"J. 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