That's right: a team - nine persons precisely - is actively collecting insects in the rainforests near Mabura Hill, South of Linden. This may seem odd, but it is not. Out of the 1.4 million of species which inhabit the earth and are formally known to science, about 60 per cent are insects. Many more of these tiny creatures await discovery or formal description. For example, only 384 insects species are formally known in Guyana, whereas the true figure may be closer to 100,000. This situation is most unfortunate. Many insects eat plants. Like plants, insects store numerous chemical compounds in their bodies: from enzymes necessary to the detoxification of the leaves eaten to poisons which render insects inedible to birds and other predators. In reality, many insect species abound with chemicals and there are many more species of insects than of plants (in the ratio of one to 16).

About two-thirds of our drugs originate from plants. Chemical companies annually spend large sums of money in screening plants for useful chemicals. A few people, particularly in Costa Rica, realized in the 1980's that insects are also very promising in this regard. What if a certain beetle species native to Guyana proved to synthesize chemicals useful in fighting AIDS? Think one moment of the royalties that Guyana could claim... So why are insects not routinely screened for chemicals like plants?

There are three major problems. First of all, insects move (often a lot), plants don't. If you collect a particular species of insect at one place at one time, you cannot be sure to find it again at the same spot the day after. In addition, many species may only be present or visible during certain periods of the year. Second, most insects are extremely small (three-four mm). It is relatively easy to harvest 2 pounds of bark or leaves of a certain tree species for chemical analysis, but much less so to collect 2 pounds of a particular bug species. To collect insects reliably and in large quantities, one needs both skills and experience: how, where and when to collect.

Third, the small size of insects also make them difficult to recognize and to sort the different species from each other. This is important as different species yield different chemicals. To sort out insect species, you need a good microscope and you need to know where to look, that is which morphological characters may be important in differentiating the species. In addition, to observe a minute specimen in good condition, you need to prepare it adequately - an other type of skill which needs to be developed.

In Guyana, we are far from screening insect species routinely for useful chemicals. Our knowledge of the Guyanese insects, particularly the non-pest species, is fairly restricted. Before talking about chemical screening, we need to know which insect species occur in the country and how to tell them apart from others. This requires training more people in methods of collecting, preserving and studying insects. Not all these people need to be academics. A great deal can be accomplished by local people, providing they receive adequate training. At Mabura Hill, 84 miles South of Linden, an insect project, under the responsibility of the International Institute of Entomology and the Darwin Initiative for the Protection of the Species (both based in the UK), follows this line of reasoning. There, Drs Yves Basset and David Hammond study the diversity of insects that feed on rainforest trees before and after selective logging. A key step towards the successful completion of the 3-year study is the training of field assistants as "insect parataxonomists", that is to develop an aptitude to sort insects systematically. In contrast, a true "taxonomist" not only sort species but also names them and formally describes them if new to science.

Hammond and Basset have secured the participation as trainees of Troy Lashley, Milton Allicock, Dayl Thompson, Marlon Mclennan, Henry James and Terrence Washington. A MSc student at the University of Guyana, Mr. Elroy Charles, completes the team. They have established a camp near to the confluence of the Essequibo River and Camoudi Creek, South of Mabura. A basic insect laboratory was set up at Mabura with the help of Tropenbos-Guyana and Demerara Timbers Ltd. The team collects insects in the unlogged forest near the camp and forward them to the lab where they are prepared, sorted and securely stored, awaiting eventual transfer to the National Insect Collection, currently housed at the National Agricultural Research Institute (NARI) at Mon Repo. Training includes general teaching in entomology (the science which studies insects), insect collecting, insect mounting and preparation, curation of collections, microscope work, as well as using computers. Pictures of insect specimens are digitalised into a computer, to help sort out species and to learn more about insect morphology. The trainees are enthusiastic about their work: "We have the opportunity to study things that we never came across while in school". "All during my life I used to regard insects as useless, just good to be killed, whereas now I realize that they are very important and valuable". "In our country I find it very exciting to know that there are thousands of different species of insects in our forests. It is important for us to know how we can use them and this could be very profitable for us in the future".

Although the project only started 5 months ago, the insect team is confident that they can achieve their goals and successfully complete their stint of training as the first insect parataxonomists of Guyana. Anybody wishing to support their efforts or to discuss any aspects of the training programme can contact the team at the following address:

The Camoudi Insect Project, c/o Tropenbos, 12E Garnett Street, Cambbelville, Georgetown. Phone (02) 62846