Exploring Biodiversity in the Amazon

Adrian Plant (Principal Curator of Entomology) is about to set off on a trip exploring biodiversity in the Brazilian Amazon. This will be the second of three planned trips hosted by the premier Amazon research institute - Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia (INPA) based in Manaus and funded by Brazil’s Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico. Adrian has been collaborating with fellow Diptera (fly) specialist Dr José Albertino Rafael and PhD student Josenir Camara in understanding more about Amazonian species of an aquatic fly genus called Hemerodromia. The project intends to describe all of the many new species of this group of flies found in the Amazon Basin and will look at their evolutionary relationships with other related forms around the world. It is anticipated that the researchers will be able to learn much about the reasons why certain insects occur where they do by relating the findings to ecological, biogeographical and climatic data. The team will be in the field for one month, surveying areas in the central Amazon around Manaus and also some of the upper tributaries of the river in Ecuador. Following completion of this phase of the Project, Josenir will spend six months based in Cardiff using the Museum’s extensive collections to help advance her work.

Dr Adrian Plant