MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Scientists studying invasive insects in Sub Antarctica islands

French scientists have spent summer months in the extreme south of Chile collecting samples of insects with the purpose of trying to determine their geographic distribution process along Sub Antarctic insular territories which includes the Kerguelen in the Pacific, the South Atlantic Falklands and South Georgia and Patagonia.

According to media reports from Punta Arenas in the extreme south of Chile, during their field work the scientists collected samples of carabideous-coleopterous(carnivorous beetles) in the framework of a project on the "Sub-Antarctic insular territories native communities vulnerability to the invasion of insects and climate change", which was sponsored by the Chilean Antarctic Institute, Inach, that supplied the necessary logistics and access to out of bound areas in the extreme south of the country. The contacts between the French researches and the Chilean Antarctic Institute were established during the latest meeting of SCAR (Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research) held in Saint Petersburg, Russia, said Dr. Marcelo Gonz?lez, head of Inach's Scientific Department. Apparently one of the insects which most interests is the carabideous Merizodus soledadinus(Trechidae),originally from Patagonia and the Falkland Islands which was later introduced to Kerguelen and South Georgia where allegedly it is causing serious damage to the biota of those islands. The French scientists also would like to compare genetic findings from this family of insects found in Kerguelen, South Georgia and Patagonia. The group is also interested in collecting other invertebrates in the areas where the Merizodus soledadinusis present, to investigate about community structures in these habitats. The team is headed by Dr. David Renault from the University of Rennes; Marc Lebouvier also from Rennes and Christopher Douady and Bernard Kaufmann from the University of Lyon. Merizodus soledadinusis found in the cold temperate regions of the southern hemisphere. Introduced to the island of South Georgia and the Kerguelen Islands, the expansion of this polyphagous predator poses a major threat to the indigenous arthropods of these islands.