Biodiversity in Papua

A member of our group suddenly called out: 'Look here, I haven't seen this one before', and the others rushed over to see what kind of moth he had found. Night had just fallen and we turned on a special light for attracting insects. Within only a minute the first moths started coming to the light and sitting on the white sheet. Within half an hour, there were more than a hundred moths on the sheet with more and more coming out of the jungle.

This was one of the highlights of my holiday in September last year. I joined an international group of insect experts on an expedition to Yapen Island in Papua, Indonesia. Very little research has been done on the insect fauna of Yapen. I got to know many people and enjoyed helping them find the insects they were looking for. There were experts in butterflies, moths, caterpillars, flies, mosquitoes, crickets, grasshoppers and stick insects. The phrase: 'I have never seen this one before' or 'That's probably a new species to science', was heard on a regular basis.

No more than 150 moth species were known from Yapen island, up to the time of our expedition. In a week's time we registered more than 480 species, based on the photographs we took, a more than 300% increase. Our findings have been published in the journal Sugapa. A few species cannot yet be named because further research is needed. I myself found a Tamba species (pictured above); perhaps a new species for science. In addition, I also found a Dysaethria urapterygia, which until now was only known from one specimen in the Natural History Museum in London.