Papua Insects Foundation

Scientists research the causes and effects of changes in climate and biodiversity. One of the essential tools for this kind of research is information about the occurrance (faunistics) of plant and animal species in certain areas. For this it is extremely important to have accurate information, checklists of correctly identificated species and when available ecological information. Especially on tropical insects this kind of information is hard to find or it takes loads of time and effort to gather the literature provided. For some it may even be impossible to consult the necessary literature or to visit relevant museum collections. In many cases it may even be necessary to undertake new expeditions to poorly visited or even unexplored areas.

collecting at light in Borme, Star Mountains (Papua, Indonesia) (Photo: Henk van Mastrigt)

As part of the Papua Insects Foundation, the aim of this website is to provide organisations, scientist, students, museums and everyone interested, with actual information on the taxonomics and faunistics of the insect fauna of Papua. This includes checklists with the latest nomenclatorial views, pictures of the species, distribution maps (compiled from information as far as known from literature and collections) and a list with relevant literature. If available we will also give information and photographs of the types.

Very important is to distinguish so called biodiversity hotspots, places or areas where the entomological fauna is of a very high richness and is therefore of great importance to nature conservation. In order to actually recognize these hotspots it is necessary to inventorise the insect fauna and have knowledge about the existance and identity of the species. The Papua Insect Foundation can be of help in this matter.

However, information of some insects orders or families may not always be complete, due to uncertainties or simply because no (recent) work on these taxa is done yet. On the other hand, the taxa which are represented in detail on this website are recently thoroughly revised or studied and the information given is scientifically certified or at least expected to be so. The contributors to this website themselves are scientists or are in contact with specialists all over the world.

New Guinea is the second largest island in the world (Greenland is the largest). It is also one of the richest islands for what biodiversity is concerned. Its tropical climate and fortunately still largely (70%) with forest covered surface gives animals and plants the opportunity to flourish in an almost unlimited way. Its biogeographic history is very complex and resulted in strange habitats from an even stranger origin. Its floral and faunal character is much different of that of adjacent areas in the region. For instance, in the west the Moluccas may have an overlap of species with New Guinea, but for the greater part it differs significantly and forms the border between the Sundanian and Wallacian regions on one side and the Australian faunal regions on the other side. In the south and southeast the faunal characters are similar in Queensland (Australia), the Solomon Islands and Fiji, but New Guinea inhabits loads of endemic fauna elements. There have been many natural historic expeditions in New Guinea but most of them were in the eastern part, at present Papua New Guinea. The majority of faunistic information from New Guinea consequently deals with this area. Because of the fact that the western part, Papua (Indonesia), is underexplored and because the geological history of this area for a greater part differs from the eastern area, which also resulted in different flora and thus fauna, it is about time that this interesting part of New Guinea is mapped. Of course, there is already information about the western part of New Guinea available, but it is scattered in literature and hidden in (museum) collections. It is one of our jobs to collect these data and to make this information available to the public.

History

In the 19th and early 20th century the island of New Guinea was colonized by three nations: the Dutch in the west (Dutch New Guinea), the Germans in the northeast (Kaiser Wilhelms Land) and the British in the southeast (British New Guinea). At 1848 the border of Dutch New Guinea is layed down at 141º Eastern Length by the government of the Dutch Indies. It was officially determined in 1895 and is until present day the unchanged border of Papua with Papua New Guinea. In 1963 the area was handed over to UNTEA and finally to the Republic of Indonesia and was called Irian Barat (West Irian), from 1973 Irian Jaya (= "Ikut Republik Indonesia, Anti Nederland", which means "Follow the Republik Indonesia, reject The Netherlands", "Jaya" means "glorious") and from October 2001 Papua (or Papua Indonesia, to avoid confusion). In 2003 there was an attemption to divide Papua in three subprovinces (Papua Barat, Papua Tengah and Papua Timur) but because of many protests it was decided to divide Papua in 2007 in only two main provinces: Papua Barat (West Papua) and Papua. On 30 June 2022 the government decided to devide Indonesian New Guinea in five provinces (see map): Tito Karnavian, Indonesia's Home Affairs Minister, said after the vote that the primary goal of the legislation was "to accelerate development in Papua to increase the welfare of the people in Papua, especially indigenous Papuans." In this website we only use the name Papua or Papua Indonesia, meaning all five provinces together.

The most recent mapping of provinces in Indonesian New Guinea (June 2022 >)

Because in the 19th and early 20th century most naturalists were either German or British it is obvious that the colonies in the east of New Guinea were visited more frequently by scientists than the Dutch western part of the island. Furthermore Dutch scientists hardly showed any interest in this part of their colony. After Dutch New Guinea was handed over to UNTEA and Indonesia in 1963, hardly any expedition or collection trip was held in this part until the Eighties of the last century. Nevertheless, their have been some important expeditions in the western part. An overview of these expeditions is given on the history page of this website.

If you are interested in more detailed information than presented here, please do not hesitate to contact us.
If you have additional information about some taxa, please let us know or join us and contribute to this website. A list of participating specialists is given in contributors.

You will find a list of the collections and museums from which information and photographs are obtained and used for this website with their permission.

The insects of Papua Indonesia

Taxonomic and faunistic overviews on the insect species living in Papua and West-Papua (Indonesian New Guinea)