Insect diversity on Moorea (French Polynesia)

Mo’orea, French Polynesia supports a wide array of invasive, naturalized, and native plants. In these different plant community structures, there is a high likelihood that insect populations will be changed by the variety of flora. The focus of this research project, in which eight weeks were spent at the UC Berkeley Gump station, is to assess what possible differences there may be at four native, four naturalized (ancient Polynesian introduction), and four invasive (post-European introduction) plant sites. Data is to be collected utilizing Malaise traps left up for five days. Statistical methods will analyze the data, attempting to ascertain if there are any significant insect community changes amongst different flora types. Potentially this project will focus on the specific orders Diptera and Hymenoptera and any possible host-parasite relations between the two. This project is still in progress (and will be until November 4th), so possibly project changes are expected.