by Fancy Brown
My name is Fancy Brown and I come from Vanuatu, a small country in the South Pacific. I am 22 years of age and doing my Bachelor Degree at the Pacific Adventist University (PAU), majoring both in Environmental Science and Biology. This year as part of my studies I am required to do practicum for three weeks and I have chosen Binatang Research Center to come and do my practicum. There were two of us going and both of us are from Vanuatu. Jessica and I arrived there on a Saturday and was fortunate to meet with the director of the research center before he left for cairns. The staffs and students at the research center were friendly and made us feel welcome. Being here for the last three weeks I have learnt a lot about the research center, what they are doing and also what they offer to post graduates and masters students. We were scheduled to work at different sections and the three sections that we worked with were Botany, Sap Sucking and Beetle.
The first week we worked with the botany section and some of the main things that we learned are, knowing the basics of the different types of leaves in order to differentiate the leaves, knowing the characteristics of the leaves and also the procedures of how the plants were tagged on the field, brought into the station for further identification. We also learned how to photoshop the leaf frames and do leaf analysis, which is calculating the perimeter and area of the leaf samples. That is basically to estimate how much leaf damage is done by herbivores on a tree. We also had a half day field trip into the bush at Baitabag to identify some plant species and collect some leaf samples back to the research center and practice the procedures of how leaves were collected from the field and brought in to be identified. It was a fun experience and I enjoyed it very much, especially the part were we just walk inside the bush and name all the different type of tree families and species and to know they are all related like human beings do. At the end of the week, Kenneth Pomoh who supervised us gave us a theory test on what we have learned in the past days. Some pictures of what we have been doing during that week are shown below.
The second week we worked in the sap sucking section (Order: Hempitera) and at this section we learnt a lot of interesting things and the skill of how to dissect an insect in order to do further identification. We were privileged to actually identify a specimen that was collected at Mount Wilhelm last year 2013. We had to cross check the specimen with the different families of sap sucking in the reference collection to find similar ones and then dissect their genitalia to do more identification. The specimen is a new specimen thus, we had to take pictures of it because it is needed when entered into database. We also did photoshops and sketches of the genital parts of the specimen and had the chance to enter the information about that particular specimen into the database of the research center. The days went past very quickly and to me I think if I had spent two or three more weeks working in this section, I would be able to learn a lot of skills in identifying these sap sucking insects, which are very tiny insects and usually seen more clearer using the microscope. Below are few pictures of what we have been doing in this section.
The last week we spend at the beetle section (Order: Coleoptera) with Joachim and we enjoyed it. We learned how beetles are classified into their families and also data entry. The first days we spend there, we cross check the unknown specimens with those on the reference collection and change their ID numbers. We also did data entry of the field works into their databases. The highlight of that section is we did a little trial of how beetles were collected from the field and brought into the lab to be identified and later mounted. At the end of the last week we did a presentation on what we have done during the weeks we spend there and also a little about Vanuatu.
Overall, We have enjoyed our stay at the center and being there I have learned two important things and that is how important insects are to our environment and also one other interesting event I find amazing and I think is very important is the Kokomo seminar (Kokomo is pidgin word for horn bill - who is a resident pet of BRC) which the students held every Friday morning to discuss scientific papers. ) seminar has New Guinea Binatang Research Center is the best place to be and I believe being there just for three weeks can get me anywhere in the world to further my study.
The first week we worked with the botany section and some of the main things that we learned are, knowing the basics of the different types of leaves in order to differentiate the leaves, knowing the characteristics of the leaves and also the procedures of how the plants were tagged on the field, brought into the station for further identification. We also learned how to photoshop the leaf frames and do leaf analysis, which is calculating the perimeter and area of the leaf samples. That is basically to estimate how much leaf damage is done by herbivores on a tree. We also had a half day field trip into the bush at Baitabag to identify some plant species and collect some leaf samples back to the research center and practice the procedures of how leaves were collected from the field and brought in to be identified. It was a fun experience and I enjoyed it very much, especially the part were we just walk inside the bush and name all the different type of tree families and species and to know they are all related like human beings do. At the end of the week, Kenneth Pomoh who supervised us gave us a theory test on what we have learned in the past days. Some pictures of what we have been doing during that week are shown below.
The second week we worked in the sap sucking section (Order: Hempitera) and at this section we learnt a lot of interesting things and the skill of how to dissect an insect in order to do further identification. We were privileged to actually identify a specimen that was collected at Mount Wilhelm last year 2013. We had to cross check the specimen with the different families of sap sucking in the reference collection to find similar ones and then dissect their genitalia to do more identification. The specimen is a new specimen thus, we had to take pictures of it because it is needed when entered into database. We also did photoshops and sketches of the genital parts of the specimen and had the chance to enter the information about that particular specimen into the database of the research center. The days went past very quickly and to me I think if I had spent two or three more weeks working in this section, I would be able to learn a lot of skills in identifying these sap sucking insects, which are very tiny insects and usually seen more clearer using the microscope. Below are few pictures of what we have been doing in this section.
The last week we spend at the beetle section (Order: Coleoptera) with Joachim and we enjoyed it. We learned how beetles are classified into their families and also data entry. The first days we spend there, we cross check the unknown specimens with those on the reference collection and change their ID numbers. We also did data entry of the field works into their databases. The highlight of that section is we did a little trial of how beetles were collected from the field and brought into the lab to be identified and later mounted. At the end of the last week we did a presentation on what we have done during the weeks we spend there and also a little about Vanuatu.
Overall, We have enjoyed our stay at the center and being there I have learned two important things and that is how important insects are to our environment and also one other interesting event I find amazing and I think is very important is the Kokomo seminar (Kokomo is pidgin word for horn bill - who is a resident pet of BRC) which the students held every Friday morning to discuss scientific papers. ) seminar has New Guinea Binatang Research Center is the best place to be and I believe being there just for three weeks can get me anywhere in the world to further my study.