There is increasing emphasis on the use of new analytical approaches in subject analysis and classification, particularly in respect to minimal sample preparation. Here, we demonstrate that rapid evaporative ionization mass spectrometry (REIMS), a method that captures metabolite mass spectra after rapid combustive degradation of an intact biological specimen, generates informative mass spectra from several arthropods, and more specifically, is capable of discerning differences between species and sex of several adult Drosophila species. A model including five Drosophila species, built using pattern recognition, achieves high correct classification rates (over 90%) using test datasets and is able to resolve closely related species. The ease of discrimination of male and female specimens also demonstrates that sex-specific differences reside in the REIMS metabolite patterns, whether analysed across all five species or specifically for D. melanogaster. Further, the same approach can correctly discriminate and assign Drosophila species at the larval stage, where these are morphologically highly similar or identical. REIMS offers a novel approach to insect typing and analysis, requiring a few seconds of data acquisition per sample and has considerable potential as a new tool for the field biologist.

人们越来越重视在主题分析和分类中使用新的分析方法，特别是在最少的样品制备方面。在这里，我们证明快速蒸发电离质谱（REIMS）是一种在完整生物样本快速燃烧降解后捕获代谢物质谱的方法，从几种节肢动物生成信息丰富的质谱，更具体地说，能够辨别物种之间的差异以及几种成年果蝇物种的性别。使用模式识别构建的包含五个果蝇物种的模型使用测试数据集实现了较高的正确分类率（超过 90%），并且能够解析密切相关的物种。区分雄性和雌性标本的容易程度也表明，无论是对所有五个物种进行分析还是专门针对黑腹果蝇进行分析，REIMS 代谢模式中都存在性别特异性差异。此外，相同的方法可以在幼虫阶段正确区分和分配果蝇物种，这些物种在形态上高度相似或相同。 REIMS 提供了一种昆虫分型和分析的新颖方法，每个样本需要几秒钟的数据采集，并且作为野外生物学家的新工具具有相当大的潜力。