LPF: a framework for exploring the wing color pattern formation of ladybird beetles in Python

SUMMARY: Biological pattern formation is one of the complex system phenomena in nature, requiring theoretical analysis based on mathematical modeling and computer simulations for in-depth understanding. We propose a Python framework named LPF to systematically explore the highly diverse wing color patterns of ladybirds using reaction-diffusion models. LPF supports GPU-accelerated array computing for numerical analysis of partial differential equation models, concise visualization of ladybird morphs, and evolutionary algorithms for searching mathematical models with deep learning models for computer vision. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: LPF is available on GitHub at https://github.com/cxinsys/lpf.