Constant & Hendrickx, Cambodia (ongoing)
A step further in the Entomodiversity of Cambodia (continuation)
Abstract:
The project aims to go on with the collaboration between RBINS and RUPP. It started from the 2015 mission to Cambodia by JC to sample different typical habitats and train RUPP students to field collecting techniques, as well as giving a 2 day workshop on taxonomy, entomological collections, insect mounting techniques and identification at RUPP. The 2016 GTI project “Fostering entomodiversity research in Southeast Asia” involved also the Vietnam Museum of Nature (VNMN) and a MoU for cooperation in entomological research was signed between RUPP and VNMN as a result.
RBINS researchers along with their Cambodian partenrs plan to develop this project through two main components:
(1) Collecting, identification and inventory of 7 target groups (i.e. Homoptera Cicadidae, Fulgoridae, Eurybrachidae, Heteroptera Pentatomidae, Phasmida, Lepidoptera Saturniidae and Coleoptera Rutelinae, Sericinae and Lucanidae) in two or three (depending on local conditions) protected areas in the extremely poorly documented northeastern part of Cambodia. Those represent areas of high biodiversity potential and of high interest for understanding zoogeography and estimate species richness in two of our focus groups: stick insects and cicadas.
The training of the Cambodian members of the staff to some field collecting techniques and to some identification routines (field taxonomy), will be given by JC and JB. All participants will be trained to general entomological collecting and to specific collecting of the groups studied by the other members of the staff in order to reach the best team-efficiency during fieldwork. This will be of great importance for the further work of our RUPP colleagues.
(2) Improvement of the entomological collections, of the collections management and of the study of the material preserved in RUPP-CEI.
Environmental conditions of the collections at RUPP-CEI will be assessed. One of the challenges will certainly be to curate and study the great amount of unmounted material which for sure contains a high number of new species.
The objective is to develop in RUPP a modern reference collection of national, regional and international importance, using the best international standards, and to provide material allowing state-of-the-art mounting and study of the specimens. Exchange of voucher specimens between RBINS and RUPP will accelerate the building of vast and useful reference collections in each institution.
