YOLito: A generalizable model for automated mosquito detection

Sar-Shalom, E.; Kassner, Z.; Sarig, A.; Vinauger, C.; Coutinho-Abreu, I.; Triana, M. F.; Bouzada, L. I.; Pitts, J.; Stensmyr, M. C.; Akbari, O.; Papathanos, P. A.; Bohbot, J. D.

doi:10.1101/2025.11.20.689454

bioRxiv · 10.1101/2025.11.20.689454

YOLito: A generalizable model for automated mosquito detection

Sar-Shalom, E.·Kassner, Z.·Sarig, A.·Vinauger, C.·Coutinho-Abreu, I.·Triana, M. F.·Bouzada, L. I.·Pitts, J.·Stensmyr, M. C.·Akbari, O.·Papathanos, P. A.·Bohbot, J. D.

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Abstract

Understanding mosquito behavior is key to advancing research in ecology, evolution, and disease control, yet most behavioral assays rely on human-dependent methods, such as real-time observation or manual frame-by-frame annotation, limiting throughput and reproducibility. We present YOLito, a domain-generalized AI model for automated mosquito detection and behavioral quantification. Built on the Ultralytics YOLO framework and enhanced with Slicing-Aided Hyper Inference (SAHI), YOLito accurately detects multiple mosquitoes across diverse backgrounds and imaging conditions. Trained on a globally assembled dataset of 38,547 annotated images from 35 experimental setups across six laboratories and three public datasets, YOLito achieved high performance on unseen data (precision = 0.95; recall = 0.91) and generalized across mosquito species (Aedes, Anopheles, Culex) and assay types, including blood-feeding, sugar-feeding, and oviposition. By automating behavioral scoring, YOLito transforms traditional assays into scalable and reproducible experimental platforms. The accompanying open-source toolkit enables high-throughput extraction of metrics such as visit frequency, duration, and distance traveled, providing a standardized and extensible framework that bridges computer vision and vector biology.

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Sar-Shalom, E., Kassner, Z., Sarig, A., Vinauger, C., Coutinho-Abreu, I., Triana, M. F., Bouzada, L. I., Pitts, J., Stensmyr, M. C., Akbari, O., Papathanos, P. A., Bohbot, J. D.. 2025-11-21. YOLito: A generalizable model for automated mosquito detection. https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.11.20.689454

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