Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 36 (2002) 17–31 www.elsevier.com/locate/compag A diagnostic expert system for honeybee pests B.D. Mahaman a, *, P. Harizanis b , I. Filis a , E. Antonopoulou a , C.P. Yialouris a , A.B. Sideridis a a Informatics Laboratory, Agricultural Uniersity of Athens, 75 Iera Odos, 11855 Athens, Greece b Laboratory of Sericulture – Apiculture, Agricultural Uniersity of Athens, 75 Iera Odos, 11855 Athens, Greece Received 20 July 2001; received in revised form 24 April 2002; accepted 20 May 2002 Abstract This paper describes the development of a rule-based expert system to diagnose pests of honeybees (Apis mellifera L.) and to suggest the appropriate treatments. The system can be used as a diagnostic tool for beekeepers and as for educational and extension purposes in bee pathology. It provides a diagnosis based on the description of the external appearance or behavior of the affected colony. Corresponding pictures accompany the most important symptoms and certain measures to be taken are proposed. The expert system was evaluated following the conventional expert system evaluation methodologies. The system was imple- menting using EXSYS for Microsoft Windows environment. © 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Diagnostic expert system; Apiculture; Bee pest management 1. Introduction Honeybees (Apis mellifera L.) are vulnerable to pests and suffer from a wide range of severe infections. These pests include diseases, insects, mites, birds and mammals. In the frame of this paper all the bee enemies will be refereed to as pests. One way to increase honey production and improve its quality is to reduce losses caused by these pests. Identification of problems related to bee health and the implementation of control measures is therefore important. An unrecognised pest * Corresponding author E-mail address: bader@aua.gr (B.D. Mahaman). 0168-1699/02/$ - see front matter © 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII:S0168-1699(02)00069-8