Port Boisé campsite, Province Sud

New Caledonia,

April 19th-May 7th, 2005

La Poule Couveuse de Hienghène, east coast, Province Nord

New Caledonia is located in the south pacific.

We collected in New Caledonia because little has been collected from the island previously and the island’s flora is known to be highly diverse, highly endemic, and contains many ancient lineages of land plants.

The field trip included collecting in both the Northern (Nord) and Southern (Sud) Provinces.

The collectors on the field trip were (from left to right) Geoff Monteith (Queensland Museum), Post-Doc Michael Wall, PhD candidate Nik Tatarnic and Co-PI Gerry Cassis. Seen here at Port Boisé campsite, Province Sud.…

Haute Yaté, Province Sud – overlooking the maquis.

The maquis vegetation in New Caledonia is highly endemic and diverse. Collecting here was not the best, possibly because there was little flowering vegetation at the time.

Driving through the maquis (high metal soils), Province Sud.

This road cut exposes the red lateritic soils that cover much of New Caledonia. These soils are extremely high in heavy metals and home to a highly endemic, heavy metal tolerant flora.

Michael Wall in search of mirids near the Cap N'dua Lighthouse, Province Sud.

Gerry Cassis collecting plant bugs from an Acacia sp. near the Cap N'dua Lighthouse, Province Sud.

Chute Madelaine, site of the endemic gymnosperm Neocallitropsis pancheri (pictured here in the foreground just below and to the left of the waterfall) host of an undescribed large green orthotyline, Province Sud.

Rivierê Blanche section, Rivierê Bleue Reserve, Province Nord.

The Riviere Bleue Reserve has a good combination of tropical forest and maquis vegetation. Nik collected some interesting orange phylines here at the rainforest edge.

Néhoue Campsite, Province Nord.This was a good rainforest site in the inland north. By slogging up the river we were able to collect a new species of green orthotyline on a species of Gymnostoma that we only found along the river banks.

Travelling in style…campsite at Pindaï Beach, Pindaï Peninsula, Province Nord.

The Pindaï Peninsula has the largest remaining dry sclerophyll forest left in New Caledonia. We collected a diversity of plant bugs here, including some ant mimics and at least one species of Pseudoloxops.

Geissois sp. (Cunoniaceae): on this species we found two species of an undescribed genus of Orthotylinae.

A variety of mirids, including an ant-mimetic orthotyline, were collected from Acacia spirobis. This Acacia species is widespread in disturbed localities in New Caledonia. We collected from it at nine different locations during our trip.

Micellaneous mirids including a small phyline were collected from Baeckia ericoides (Myrtaceae), shown here.

We collected on many species of Gymnostoma and almost all were host to small green orthotylines. We are eager to examine the collections back at the lab to see if each Gymnostoma sp. is host to a unique mirid species.

Coridromius variegatus, an orthotylinae plant bug, is seen here feeding on Phyllanthus sp. Rivière Bleue, Province Sud.

Phylines and orthotylines were collected from Grevillea gillvrayi, shown here. Having already collected Miridae on Grevillea spp. in neighboring Australia, it was no surprise that Grevillea spp. are also productive hosts in New Caledonia.

Casuarina collina serves as host to variously colored Phylinae amongst other plant bugs. Species of Casuarinaceae serve as host to numerous plant bug species in Australia.

Mutton Bird, Province Nord

Phasmid (stick insect) disguisedas a leaf

Mutton bird

Orb weaving spider

Some of the great creatures we saw on our field trip…

We found many Halobates washed up on the shore at Tiakan Beach, Province Nord.

Halobates are predaceous marine water striders that live on the surface of the open ocean.

They belong to the same insect order, Heteroptera, as the Orthotylinae and Phylinae plant bugs that are the focus of the PBI project.

Chambered Nautilus shell

Trip Results:Trip Results:• ~5,000 plant bugs collected~5,000 plant bugs collected• new species were discoverednew species were discovered• ~100 host plants collected~100 host plants collected