title: FlyCounter: a simple software for counting large populations of small clumped objects in the laboratory.
abstract: While several software programs exist to count bacterial colonies on a Petri plate, no suitable solution is available for quick and reliable enumeration of small, live insects. We have written a program called FlyCounter that can obtain counts from images, even if insects are highly clumped in space. We also describe a simple and inexpensive system for anesthetizing and capturing high-quality images of the small insects. Taken together, our process is fast, fully automatic, and has a low percentage of error (~1%-4% on average). Although we have tested our software on fruit flies, it should be simple to extend to other organisms of similar size.
authors: Zeus Numerix, M 03, SINE, CSRE Building, IIT Bombay Campus, Powai, Mumbai, India.
authors: Arpit
authors: A
authors: Yati
authors: Sutirth
authors: S
authors: Dey
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002452:Cell Count / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods*; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods*; D007313:Insecta / Q000166:cytology*; D012984:Software