The amount of excreta from sap-feeding insects is linked to the differences in ingestion volumes, and it provides valuable information such as the presence of feeding stimulants and deterrents in their diets. In this work, we introduce a newly developed program source code named DROP and use it to produce imaging densitometric analyses of the insect excreta. Our method is straightforward, rapid, has high sensitivity, and is sufficiently accurate, and therefore is applicable to many sap-feeding insects. The DROP and the sample images are freely available on the website https://sites.google.com/view/tsuchida-lab-drop .

中文翻译：

---

使用密度测量研究操作程序 (DROP) 对蜜露样品进行成像密度测量

以汁液为食的昆虫的排泄物数量与摄入量的差异有关，它提供了有价值的信息，例如它们饮食中是否存在摄食刺激物和威慑物。在这项工作中，我们引入了一个名为 DROP 的新开发的程序源代码，并使用它来对昆虫排泄物进行成像密度分析。我们的方法简单、快速、灵敏度高且足够准确，因此适用于许多以汁液为食的昆虫。DROP 和示例图像可在网站 https://sites.google.com/view/tsuchida-lab-drop 上免费获得。