Set ashore on a desert island
With a colleague from CIRAD, in 1982, we are (left photo) in front of our refugee tent (lent to us by the local Red Cross), which will be our shelter for the night. We have just set ashore on Santa Luzia, uninhabited island of the Cape Verde archipelago. We rented a fishing boat in San Vicente, the neighboring island, and we set foot on a sandy beach. The boat must come find us in two days. So we have some time to explore the grasshopper fauna of this small rocky island of only 12 km length and 2.5 km width.
From 1979 to 1982, I spent 2 months every year exploring the Cape Verde Islands, and studying the grasshopper fauna and the ecology of the various species. Poor in wildlife, this environment is house to only some 37 species which seem to survive with difficulty in this dry tropical environment where rainfall is scarce. Some years, in the absence of rain, some species may disappear; the islands are then recolonized by flight from the nearby African continent. We nevertheless discovered two new species, endemic to the archipelago: Wernerella atlantica Popov 1983 in Santa Luzia, and a surprising brachypterous species (with short wings and no flying capabilities) : Eyprepocprifas insularis Donskoff 1983, discovered in 1980 on a stone wall along the road, about 800 meters above sea level on the island of San Nicolau. We could find only a single male. A mysterious species that has never been reported since.
In 4 years, I spent almost 8 months exploring the 11 main islands of Cape Verde archipelago: Santiago in 1979, San Nicolau, Boa Vista and Maio in 1980, Santo Antao, San Vicente and Fogo (with the ascent of its active volcano, which rises to 2829 m – right photo above) in 1981, finishing with Brava, Sal, and the islet of Santa Luzia in 1982. Only the two islets of Razo and Branco, off Santa Luzia, have escaped my surveys. The diversity of islands and landscapes is extraordinary. Some stony regs are like the surface of the Moon or Mars. And at a few hundred meters you can admire a lush vegetation, canyons and vertiginous peaks. All this makes Cap Verde islands a unique and endearing place.
André Duhart, former director of the OICMA (International Organization against the African migratory locust) in Mali in the 50s, was in position in the archipelago as the FAO representative. He welcomed and accompanied us on several occasions. The original purpose of these missions was to study the grasshopper fauna. Some species were a serious problem to local agriculture. In particular, the famous Senegalese grasshopper, Oedaleus senegalensis Krauss. I'm not sure I've made any important contributions to the resolution of the grasshopper problem in the Cape Verde islands ... far from it. What is certain is that the grasshopper fauna of the archipelago and its ecology are now much better known. I made aerial surveys of the islands, drove on all usable runways, made intensive surveys of all possible environments. I published around 6 scientific papers, some of which do not seem uninteresting. At least, that's not too bad of a result.
Buzzetti F.M., Lecoq M., Paolo Fontana P., Baudewijn Odé. 2005. Contribution to the Orthopteroid fauna of Sal island (Cap Verde). Italian Journal of Zoology 72: 311-315.
Lecoq M., 1996. Primeira lista vermelha para os Acrídeos (Insecta : Saltatoria). In : T. Leyens, W. Lobin (Eds) Primeira lista vermelha de Cabo Verde. Courier Forschunginstitut Senckenberg (Frankfurt am Main) 191 : 87-88.
Launois M., Launois-Luong M.H., Lecoq M., 1988. Fauna Cabo-Verdiana : Catalogue des Acridiens de l'Archipel du Cap-Vert (Insectes - Orthoptères - Caelifères). Cour. Forsch.- Inst. Senckenberg (Frankfurt am Main), 105 : 155-163.
