Abstract: Mathematical morphology is a subject using mathematical methods to describeor analyze the shape of an object. Facilitated by computer science and technology in rapid development, mathematical morphology has been paid more and more attentions in image processing and pattern recognition field. However, its applications in biology are still sparse and needed to enhance. A new interdisciplinary branch, mathematical insect morphology, is in troduced in this paper. It includes three aspects: 1. Technological study of mathematical insect morphology, involving digitization, processing and recognition technique of insect images; 2. Theoretical research of mathematical insect morphology on understanding of insectimages and the relationship with insect taxonomy; and 3. Practical applications of mathematical insect morphology, starting with the development of databases and analytical software ofmathematical morphological data from insect research, and looking forward to the development of computer vision and machine learning of insect images. Besides, mathematical insectmorphology will have so many applicable fields such as to develop automatic pest monitoring system or multimedia expert system of insect identification in the near future.

Key words: insect, mathematical morphology, digital morphology, image processing, pat tern recognition, computer vision