GTI capacity development project(s) of Constant Jérôme and Hendrickx Frederik
Species found near Yeak Laom Lake/Kachan Waterfall

Vietnam – Cambodia cooperation in insect taxonomy & A step further in the Entomodiversity of Cambodia (part I & II)

Project details

  • Years

    2016, 2017 and 2018

  • Country

    Cambodia

  • Studied organism

    Arthropods - Insects: Animalia – Arthropoda – Insecta – Coleoptera/ Hemiptera/ Lepidoptera/ Mantodea/ Phasmatodea

  • Organising institute (Belgium)

    Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences

  • Partner institute (South)

Cambodian Entomology Initiatives (CEI) – Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP)

The 2016 project aims to start a new collaboration between the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS), the Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP) and the Vietnam National Museum of Nature (VNMN). It originates from the GTI project “A step further in the Entomodiversity of Vietnam”, started in 2010, and from the 2015 mission to Cambodia by Jérôme Constant 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. A MoU was signed between RUPP and RBINS in 2015 as a result of this cooperation. Inside RUPP, Mr. Sophany Phauk has launched in 2014, with the help of colleagues and motivated students, the “Cambodian Entomology Initiatives” (CEI). The CEI collections were examined during the 2015 expedition and, even if still rather small-sized, it is done and managed very professionally. Finally, the Cicada specimens collected in Cambodia in 2015 are currently studied by H.T. Pham.

The colleagues of both VNMN and RUPP expressed the desire to work together under the auspices of a Belgian GTI project. It is believed that this could be an opportunity for all three institutions involved to better collaborate and provide better documented scientific results, especially in the distribution of the species as, at the moment, the Cambodian fauna is very poorly documented. It is also a great opportunity to promote South-South cooperation which will hopefully result into emulation and collaboration rather than competition. The collaboration with scientists from both Cambodia and Vietnam, if it gets supported further, is aimed at resulting into collaborative study in areas of transnational importance like the Mekong valley and the National Parks situated on both sides of the border.

As for the research/training in Cambodia, RBINS scientists along with their Cambodian partners (and VNMN in 2016) plan to develop the projects through two main components:

(1) Collecting, identifying and inventory of 7 target groups (i.e. Homoptera Cicadidae, Fulgoridae, Eurybrachidae, Heteroptera Pentatomidae, Phasmida, Lepidoptera Saturniidae and Coleoptera Rutelinae, Sericinae and Lucanidae) in:

  • Tatai, Peam Krasaop Mangrove and Phnom Samkos Wildlife Sanctuary (2016 project);
  • Yeak Laom Lake and Kachan Waterfall, Koulen Prumtep Wildlife Sanctuary and BeTreed Ecotourism, all situated in the extremely poorly documented northeastern part of Cambodia (2017 project);
  • Phnom Aural Wildlife Sanctuary and Preah Monivong (Bokor) National Park, two locations in the extremely poorly documented southern and southwestern part of Cambodia (2018 project).

All sites represent areas of high biodiversity potential and of high interest for understanding zoogeography and estimate species richness in two of the focus groups: stick insects and cicadas.

The training of the Cambodian staff members to some field collection techniques and to some identification routine (field taxonomy) will be given by Jérôme Constant, Joachim Bresseel and Pol Limbourg (with the help of H.T. Pham in 2016). 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 the 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 (and VNMN) will accelerate the building of vast and useful reference collections in each institute.

Files and additional information

 Video about the Cambodian Entomology Initiatives (CEI) at the Department of Biology, Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP), Cambodia, founded in 2015 by a passionate group of researchers and students in Entomology

 Poster illustrating different Rutelinae beetles from Cambodia (together with their male genitalia), prepared by Pol Limbourg and Jérôme Constant for the 2018 workshop at RUPP, entitled “Introduction to Insect Taxonomy: Hemiptera Fulgoroidea and Coleoptera Rutelinae from Cambodia”

 Presentation on the origin, preliminary outputs and perspectives of the Cambodia GTI project (Jérôme Constant)

 Presentation on the Lanternflies (Fulgoridae) of Cambodia (Jérôme Constant)

Scientific papers

Bank, S., Buckley, T. R., Büscher, T. H., Bresseel, J., Constant, J., de Haan, M., Dittmar, D., Dräger, H., Kahar, R. S., Kang, A., Kneubühler, B., Langton‐Myers, S. S., and Bradler, S. (2021). Reconstructing the nonadaptive radiation of an ancient lineage of ground‐dwelling stick insects (Phasmatodea: Heteropterygidae). Syst. Entomol. (2021), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1111/syen.12472 Cumming, R. T., Bank, S., Bresseel, J., Constant, J., Le Tirant, S., Dong, Z., Sonet, G., and Bradler, S. (2021). Cryptophyllium, the hidden leaf insects – descriptions of a new leaf insect genus and thirteen species from the former celebicum species group (Phasmatodea, Phylliidae). ZooKeys 1018, 1–179. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1018.61033 Constant, J., and Jiaranaisakul, K. (2021). The Oriental lanternfly Pyrops itoi (Satô & Nagai, 1994): New synonymy and distribution records (Hemiptera: Fulgoromorpha: Fulgoridae). Belg. J. Entomol. 110, 1–14. http://www.srbe-kbve.be/cm/belgian-journal-entomology-2021 Constant, J., and Jiaranaisakula, K. (2020). A strikingly coloured new species of Hemisphaerius Schaum, 1850 from Thailand (Hemiptera: Fulgoromorpha: Issidae). Belg. J. Entomol. 98, 1–16. http://www.srbe-kbve.be/cm/belgian-journal-entomology-2020 Constant, J. (2019). First record of the tropiduchid planthopper genus Sogana Matsumura, 1914 from Cambodia with one new species (Hemiptera: Fulgoromorpha: Tropiduchidae). Belg. J. Entomol. 82 1–11. http://www.srbe-kbve.be/cm/belgian-journal-entomology-2019 Constant, J., and Bartlett, C. R. (2019). New records and species in five planthopper families from Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary, Cambodia with checklist of Cambodian planthoppers (Hemiptera: Fulgoromorpha) Belg. J. Entomol. 83, 1–27. http://www.srbe-kbve.be/cm/belgian-journal-entomology-2019 Constant, J., and Pham, H. T. (2019). Polydictya lanternflies of the Indochinese region: Six new species and identification key (Hemiptera: Fulgoromorpha: Fulgoridae). Belg. J. Entomol. 86, 1–42. http://www.srbe-kbve.be/cm/belgian-journal-entomology-2019 Wiesner, J., and Constant, J. (2019). Records of tiger beetles (Coleoptera: Cicindelidae) collected in Cambodia, with description of a new species. 149. Contribution towards the knowledge of the Cicindelidae. Insecta Mundi 0700, 1–12. http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3673194 Bresseel, J., and Constant, J. (2018). The stick insect genus Medauroidea Zompro, 2000: Taxonomic note and extension to Laos and Cambodia with one new species, M. romantica sp. nov. (Phasmida: Phasmatidae: Clitumninae). Belg. J. Entomol. 73, 1–19. http://www.srbe-kbve.be/cm/belgian-journal-entomology-2018 Bresseel, J., and Constant, J. (2018). The Oriental stick insect genus Orestes Redtenbacher, 1906: Taxonomical notes and six new species from Vietnam (Phasmida: Heteropterygidae: Dataminae). Belg. J. Entomol. 58, 1–62. http://www.srbe-kbve.be/cm/belgian-journal-entomology-2018 Tomasovic, G., and Constant, J. (2018). Two new species of robber fly in the genus Saropogon Loew, 1847 from Southeast Asia (Diptera: Asilidae). Bulletin srbe-kbve 153, 219–225. www.srbe-kbve.be Bresseel, J., and Vermeersch, X. H. C. (2017). The first record of the genus Olcinia Stål, 1877 from Cambodia and Vietnam with the description of two new species (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae: Pseudophyllinae: Cymatomerini). Belg. J. Entomol. 56, 1–16. http://www.srbe-kbve.be/cm/belgian-journal-entomology-2017 Seehausen, M., Constant, J., and Smets, K. (2016). On a collection of Odonata from Cambodia, with the first record of Sinictinogomphus clavatus and a description of the female of Zyxomma breviventre. Notulae odonatologicae 8, 222–230.