Ecology of Indonesian Papua Part One. Andrew J. Marshall
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(now in Adelaide, and author of Mammals of New Guinea (1990; 2nd ed., 1995) and Mammals of the South-West Pacific and Moluccan Islands (1995) as well as The Future Eaters (1994) and Throwim Way Leg (1998), the last an account of his fieldwork from 1981 onwards) has been the most prominent in mammology; but Menzies also made significant contributions including A Handbook of New Guinea Marsupials and Monotremes (1991). In ornithology B. Beehler (now Washington DC), B.J. Coates (now Queensland), T. K. Pratt (now Hawai’i), and M. LeCroy (New York) have been very active since the 1970s; and resident "twitchers" (especially B. W. Finch, P. Gregory, K. D. Bishop) have continued their observations. Most notable, perhaps, were the doctoral and postdoctoral ornithological field studies conducted on Crater Mountain and Mt Missim in the 1970s and 1980s by A. Mack, D. Wright, B. Beehler, T. Pratt, and S. Pruett-Jones. These encompass the most significant fieldwork completed to date on New Guinea’s birdlife, and at Crater Mountain led the way towards long-term involvement (see section on Integrated Expeditions, above). Beehler and Pratt (with D. A. Zimmerman) have published what is now a standard handbook (Birds of New Guinea, 1986; see also Burung-burung di Kawasan Papua, 2001). The Bismarcks (with the Solomons) were quite recently also the subject of a monograph, The Birds of Northern Melanesia (2002) by Mayr and Diamond. In herpetology, besides Cogger, Tyler, and Menzies (particularly in amphibians), M. O’Shea has studied reptiles (notably snakes). Gerald Allen (Perth) has been active in ichthyology, publishing moreover two field guides, respectively in 1991 (freshwater fish) and 1993 (reef fish)—both through the Christensen Research Institute.
At the present time, the vertebrates of Papua New Guinea (or New Guinea as a whole) are relatively well covered in field and technical guides, all dating from the 1980s or later and to some of which specific reference has been made. Nevertheless, as the various conservation assessment reports (see References section, below) indicate, many gaps remain.
Arthropoda (Insects and Spiders)
As with birds, an early sponsor in entomology after World War II was Halls-trom—in effect carrying on the Rothschild tradition. He engaged Wm. W. Brandt, earlier from Europe, to make a large collection of Lepidoptera—primarily butter-flies—in the Territory of Papua and New Guinea (TPNG) from 1949 to 1955, covering many localities. Hallstrom then terminated the operation and gave the collection for the future national collections (while depositing it for safe-keeping with CSIRO at Canberra, in the manner of Macgregor long before with his official collections, sent to the Queensland Museum). Brandt then collected half-time for the Bishop Museum (miscellaneous insects) from 1956 to 1960 (Bishop), the other half of his time being spent on Lepidoptera for the Territory of Papua and New Guinea (and adding to the collections deposited by Hallstrom; CSIRO). Later on he was employed by CSIRO to curate the collection and to do some further collecting in the Territory of Papua and New Guinea (CSIRO).
In the 1950s Stan Christian, Harry A. Standfast, Wallace Peters, and others worked on mosquitoes and built up a reference collection (now at UPNG) as well as making studies of malaria transmission and teaching mosquito control. Gordon Dun of the Mandated Territory service (see section Between World War I and World War II, above) carried on with DASF to about 1960. In 1954 he was joined by Dr Joseph J. H. Szent-Ivany, a refugee from Hungary (where he had been a curator of Lepidoptera at Budapest and university lecturer in zoogeography) who had migrated to Australia. On field trips and vacations until in 1966 retiring from government service (and later at Wau Ecology Institute; see below) Szent-Ivany collected extensively in various areas, greatly adding to the DASF collection (Konedobu).
Other government entomologists who helped add to the DASF collections included J. H. Barrett, T. L. Fenner (see also Flora of Eastern New Guinea section, above), J. Healy, L. Smee, A. Catley, R. M. Stevens, T. V. Bourke, G. Baker, E. Hassan, Stuart Smith, J. N. L. Stibick, and Jan Greve. Further additions were made in 1962–1963 by J. Allen, J. M. Carlisle, D. Hutton, I. Johnson, D. Price, M. Stevens, M. Erben, and G. Rosenberg who collected insects on various mountaintops in those years. In the 1970s Donald Sands (later chief entomologist) collected butterflies as well as other insects (DASF; CSIRO).
In 1955 Edward O. Wilson, then a graduate fellow at Harvard University, collected and observed ants in various areas, mainly in the northern and southern lowlands but also ascending to the top of the Saruwaged Range (MCZ). From this work he developed the concept of "the taxon cycle" as an evolutionary geographical process. Elements of E. O. Wilson’s work in New Guinea and in the Solomon Islands also feature in his many popular books (e.g., The Diversity of Life, 1992; Naturalist, 1994).
In that same year J. L. Gressitt (see also above) commenced his 26 years of annual visits or extended stays, focusing on insects: 1955 in the Eastern and Western Highlands, Mt Otto, Mt Wilhelm, the Jimi Valley, the north coast, Manus, New Ireland, and New Britain; 1956 in Kokoda, New Britain (including a coconut beetle study for DASF), and the Solomons; 1957 in the Solomons, the north coast, and Biak; 1958 in Southern Highlands and Baiyer River; 1959 on the north coast, in the Cyclops Mts, and at Fakfak; 1960 in the Oriomo region and Cape Rodney; 1961 (with wife Margaret) to many highland areas, Mt Karimui, and Mt Giluwe, as well as Maprik, Dreikikir, Lae, and Popondetta.
With longer-term surveys and studies in mind, during his 1961 visit Gressitt established the Bishop Museum Field Station at Wau (see also section on Integrated Expeditions, as well as under Vertebrates above). There, he settled in residence Joseph Sedlacek, his wife Marie, and their son J. H. Sedlacek. There then ensued continuous insect collecting for the Bishop Museum, along with the already-mentioned collection of parasites with their vertebrate hosts as well as plants for identification of insect hosts.
Besides the Sedlaceks’ decade of work in succession to Brandt, Ray Straatman (after migrating from Netherlands New Guinea) collected 1961–1966, and Abid Beg Mirza 1967–1974 (and in 1975–1980 part-time while manager of WEI). For shorter periods during the 1960s many others (not all entomologists) participated, including T. C. Maa, Wallace A. Steffan, G. A. Samuelson, L. W. and S. Quate, Y. M. Huang, S. Sirivanakarn, Nixon Wilson, F. J. Radovsky, and A. C. Ziegler (all associated with the Bishop Museum research staff); Dr and Mrs Szent-Ivany as associates for varying periods of time; and E. J. Ford, Jr., Peter Shanahan, Geoff Monteith, P. H. Colman, N. L. H. Krauss, and H. Clissold as well as local assistants Tawi Bukam, Rennie, Spanis, Wita, Gewise, G. Nalu, and others. Cooperating researchers from other institutions largely funded by or through Bishop Museum included Drs C. D. Michener, E. N. Marks (see section on the World War II era and also below), John Smart, Peter Mattingly, D. Eimo Hardy, Robert Traub, M. Nadchatram, J. Balogh (1969 trip only), and Y. Hirashima. Field areas examined by Gressitt included, in 1963 and 1966–1967, Enga, Tari, the Kubor Mts, and Mt Michael; in 1965 (with T. C. Maa) to Mt Ialibu; in 1966 (with E. C. and R. Gressitt) to Mt Wilhelm and the Kubor and Schrader ranges; in 1969 to the Bulldog Road, Garaina (with M. and E. Gressitt), Mt Wilhelm, and Angoram (with Balogh and Hirashima); and in other years many other areas (all Bishop Museum, with some reference material retained in Wau).
From 1970 work at Wau gradually shifted to ecological and other research (covering a wider field) as well as, in time, education, conservation, and handbook preparation. In 1971 the Field Station became separately incorporated as Wau Ecology Institute; but many of those mentioned in this section continued to work or be based there, and others would join them in various capacities for targeted research (among them Hampton Carson on Drosophila diversification). In the later 1970s Gressitt was succeeded as Director by H. Sakulas, but until Gressitt’s tragic death in April 1982 in China he remained closely associated.
From 1962 another important local collection began its development, this time at the Forest Research Station in Bulolo. Barry Gray and Ross Wylie, and later Peter Shanahan, John Dobunaba, and Dr H. Roberts, built up a large collection and much data for forest insects. In the latter 1980s the collection was moved to Lae as part of the Forest Research Institute (see section on Flora of Eastern New Guinea, above), where it remains. Many scolytid beetles were described from this collection by Schedl. From the 1970s a reference collection was also assembled at the Insect Farming and Trading Agency in Bulolo; for some years it was headed by the lepidopterist Michael Parsons who while there also developed extensive data on distribution—later part of a substantial book (The Butterflies of Papua New Guinea, 1998). Parsons also studied some of the host plants.
A laboratory for study of the screw-worm fly was set up around 1964 by CSIRO—run in connection