Hotel Mahasoa

2005 I'm in the courtyard of the hotel Mahasoa (pronounced "ma-a-chou-a") in Betioky, in the far south of Madagascar, 160 km from Tulear toward Fort Dauphin. For several years, the hotel Mahasoa has become my working base. Located next to the National Locust Centre (CNA), it offers all the "comfort" which can be locally dream: 'flirtatious' room a bit hot because of its tin roof, collective shower a bit cobbled but clean, a monotonous but simple and healthy restoration, and a Malagasy couple managing all this in a friendly atmosphere with all their children. The coffee was roasted on a brazier in the courtyard where dogs, geese, ducks, chickens, pigs, and the multitude of children were circulating. I was the only foreign host. Sometimes remaining there for several weeks, I became a regular.

From 2001 to 2007, regularly performing missions in the far South of the big island of Madagascar, I multiplied my stays in the hotel Mahasoa. I was working in the context of two successive research and development projects supporting the CNA. A project funded by France from 2001 to 2003, then another in the strict continuity of the first, funded by the African Development Bank. The objectives were to support the CNA to implement a preventative strategy to better control Migratory locust invasions (Locusta migratoria L.), and to better understand the ecology of the Red locust (Nomadacris septemfasciata Serv.), as well as the determinism of its outbreaks.

The hotel Mahasoa offered me each time a safe and relatively nice place for the region ... which was far from being possible in many places in the far south. The beer accompanied with zebu skewers were a "must" that I shared from time to time with my Malagasy colleagues. Rice ("vary") was obviously omnipresent accompanied by a broth in which soaked some local herbs ("brèdes"). Cassava chips were a treat. The desert was invariably made of banana or papaya. The curdled milk, bought by the boss on the market, was a local delicacy.

The results that I obtained with my colleagues in the framework of these two projects were quite interesting. This is at least what I thought. I was especially involved in the ecology of the Red locust and I was not displeased with the results: a better understanding of population dynamics and migration, delimitation of suitable areas for breeding, density thresholds for the phasis tranformation, both for nymphs and adults (key steps, prelude to outbreaks and invasions). All this constituted a corpus of original knowledge which the locust center would be able to make good use. Unfortunately, the future has decided otherwise and when the international assistance ended, the debacle began again.

Some references:

Lecoq M., Chamouine A., Luong-Skovmand M.H. 2011. Phase-Dependent Color Polyphenism in Field Populations of Red Locust Nymphs (Nomadacris septemfasciata Serv.) in Madagascar. Psyche - A journal of Entomology, Special issue on Locusts and Grasshoppers: Behaviour, Ecology, and Biogeography, Vol. 2011, Article ID 105352, 12 pages. doi:10.1155/2011/105352

Lecoq M., Andriamaroahina T.R.Z., Solofonaina H., Gay P.E. 2011. Ecology and population dynamics of solitary Red locusts in Southern Madagascar. Journal of Orthoptera Research 20(2): 141-158.

Photos M. Lecoq (from left to right and top to bottom):