News
The National Agricultural Insect Collection: A reference resource for PNG
12th April 2005
by Seniorl Anzu
The National Agricultural Insect Collection (NAIC) maintained by the National Agricultural Research Institute (NARI) serves important functions as a reference source for the identification of insects and thus play significant roles in natural resource management and development.
This was what the NAIC Curator Mark Ero said to NARI Cadet Officers recently at Kilakila in the nation’s capital.
Mr Ero said this collection is an important asset to Papua New Guinea. He said its use both at the local and national level will have great impacts on PNG’s national plant protection, quarantine and surveillance services, and in terms of plant trade between PNG and the international community.
NAIC contains a large number of insect specimens (~200,000) collected from all over PNG. The collection is maintained and expanded as new specimens are added from surveys and new research.
Mr Ero said NAIC offers technical and advisory services to clients concerned with natural resource management, agriculture and forestry, biodiversity and conservation, ecology and biological studies, and insect surveys. He said the clients are not just researchers, institutions, corporate organizations and private companies but students and farmers as well. Services provided include identification of specimens, confirmation of previous identifications and supply of information on distributions, life cycles and host preferences.
The specimen records contain information on distribution, host ranges and pest statuses, which can be used as reference information for identification.
The insects for identification include those for biodiversity and systematic studies; insect vectors that transmit disease-causing micro-organisms; insect pests of buildings; insect pests of forest trees and forest products; insect pollinators of crops; insect pests of stored products; insect pests of crops and agricultural products, biological control agents and quarantine interceptions.
The roles of reference insect collections are indeed an integral part of plant protection packages. When maintaining these reference sources, successful control programmes for insect pests or insect vectors of plant diseases can be developed. These collections would ensure correct identifications of pests and/or their biological control agents.
Their effective establishment, maintenance and expansion would not only give citizens a moment of pride, as insects reserved in the collection reflect different types of insect fauna found within the country, but also would meaningfully contribute towards the current government’s export driven policy.