Identify or classify species of insects or allied forms, such as mites or spiders.

“Identify or classify species of insects or allied forms, such as mites or spiders.” is a supplemental task performed by Soil and Plant Scientists. Among the occupation's 27 rated tasks, workers place it 4th by importance (#24 most important). About 43% of workers say it is relevant to their job.

This is a single occupation-specific task statement from O*NET. The figures below describe how central the task is to the job and what independent studies measure about AI and this kind of work — not a prediction that the task will be automated.

Work activities this task rolls up to

O*NET groups concrete tasks into broader work activities shared across many occupations.

• Research biological or ecological phenomena. in Getting Information

AI exposure

The OpenAI / Eloundou “GPTs are GPTs” study rates this task E2. Exposure with tools — software built on top of a language model (not the model alone) could cut the time by at least half.

Exposure measures whether a model could meaningfully speed the task up — it is an estimate of overlap with model capabilities, not a measure of whether the work will be done by software. The study's intermediate score (β) for this task is 0.50. Automation potential label: T1.

How AI is actually used on this kind of task

The Anthropic Economic Index observes how people actually use AI on tasks like this one across millions of real conversations.

• 0.006% share of AI-use records mapped to this task
• Most common interaction: feedback loop
• Average autonomy of the AI: 3.5 (1–5; higher = more autonomous)
• 98% of interactions still needed a human in the loop

Observed AI use describes people choosing to use AI as a tool on this kind of task today. It is augmentation and assistance, not a measure of jobs replaced.

Working with AI vs. handing it off

Of the AI conversations mapped to this task, the split between people working alongside AI and people delegating the task to it.

How people interact with AI on this task

Other tasks in this occupation

• Communicate research or project results to other professionals or the public or teach related courses, seminars, or workshops. · importance 4.2
• Develop methods of conserving or managing soil that can be applied by farmers or forestry companies. · importance 4.1
• Provide information or recommendations to farmers or other landowners regarding ways in which they can best use land, promote plant growth, or avoid or correct problems such as erosion. · importance 4.0
• Conduct experiments to develop new or improved varieties of field crops, focusing on characteristics such as yield, quality, disease resistance, nutritional value, or adaptation to specific soils or climates. · importance 4.0
• Investigate soil problems or poor water quality to determine sources and effects. · importance 3.8
• Investigate responses of soils to specific management practices to determine the use capabilities of soils and the effects of alternative practices on soil productivity. · importance 3.8
• Conduct experiments to investigate the underlying mechanisms of plant growth and response to the environment. · importance 3.7
• Identify degraded or contaminated soils and develop plans to improve their chemical, biological, or physical characteristics. · importance 3.6
• Develop new or improved methods or products for controlling or eliminating weeds, crop diseases, or insect pests. · importance 3.6
• Study soil characteristics to classify soils on the basis of factors such as geographic location, landscape position, or soil properties. · importance 3.5
• Provide advice regarding the development of regulatory standards for land reclamation or soil conservation. · importance 3.5
• Develop improved measurement techniques, soil conservation methods, soil sampling devices, or related technology. · importance 3.5
• Conduct research to determine best methods of planting, spraying, cultivating, harvesting, storing, processing, or transporting horticultural products. · importance 3.5
• Develop environmentally safe methods or products for controlling or eliminating weeds, crop diseases, or pests. · importance 3.5

See all tasks on the Soil and Plant Scientists page.

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

• O*NET 30.3 U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development
• Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27) Anthropic
• “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130 OpenAI / academic

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

@misc{singulariki-task-9040,
  title  = {Identify or classify species of insects or allied forms, such as mites or spiders.},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/tasks/task-9040}
}