ASU entomologist explores South-West Africa

The trip is aimed at achieving two main objectives: studying entomologic materials in natural history museums of Africa and conducting field work in nature reserves and national parks of the Republic of South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Namibia.

Roman V. Yakovlev is going to prepare a detailed report for the website of Altai State University. In the meantime he shared some information about the results of work in zoological depositories in Pretoria (Ditsong Museum of Natural History) and Bulawayo (Natural History Museum of Zimbabwe):

“We’ve planned a trip to these museums a long time ago and had it coordinated by curator of the museum in Pretoria Martin Kruger and director of the museum in Bulawayo Dr. Moira FitzPatrick. It is to be noted that materials kept there are of exceptional scientific interest, because few European specialists work in African museums. Ditsong Museum of Natural History is more or less popular, while Natural History Museum of Zimbabwe has never been visited by Russian entomologists before. We have taken a lot of materials for further processing, and we will undoubtedly discover unique information. Our biologists have to work in challenging conditions: security situation in Pretoria and Zimbabwe is unstable. One evening walk can lead to bad consequences. We have been working hard in these museums, I have made over 200 photos and written over 50 pages of useful information. It is wonderful that Russian biologists are not limited to studying the region they live in anymore, as it used to be in the times of the USSR. Now we can explore biota of the whole world. I was glad to meet our friends (Belgian entomologists Wille and Jurate De Prins), who were also glad to see us. We discussed the research of the Afrotropical realm,” said R.V. Yakovlev.