Microportraits - The hidden creatures of our crops
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The Microportraits travel to Mauritius!
The exhibition of photographs "Microportraits - The hidden creatures of our crops" is dedicated to the tiny insects and spiders of the south-western Indian Ocean. Feared pests or valued auxiliaries?
The pictures come from an image bank of pests or beneficial insects and spiders in the Indian Ocean, made available to the ePRPV program's partners[1]. Antoine Franck, CIRAD photographer and entomologist, has photographed each specimen in every detail and has made a taxonomic board for each of them[2]. "These details will be very important for database users who will be able to easily find out what kind of insect they are looking at," he says.
Knowledge and safeguard of this fauna are a key issue for the protection of our environment. In the animal kingdom, the most species-rich branch is also the most unknown. Indeed, three out of four animals are insects. Hidden in our gardens and crops, insects play a major role in the delicate balance of the Earth's biodiversity. Their abundance and the diversity of their diets make insects and spiders essential to the proper functioning of ecosystems.
Although some are very popular, like the honeybee, others suffer from a bad reputation. They are seen as pests because they feed on our plants and transmit viruses. Fortunately, these "pests" have enemies in their own ranks: arachnids and insects that eat them or parasitize them. These enemies are the precious "auxiliary predators" and are also found in gardens and crops. Ladybirds and spiders are among the best known and most effective, while parasitic micro-wasps pass virtually unnoticed, even though they are also very efficient auxiliaries.
Macroscopic photographs
The beauty of this insect world which is barely visible to the naked eye has been immortalized by an imaging system composed of a macroscope coupled to a camera module. The latter is controlled by software that assembles the sequences to render a final image. We can photograph species from one-tenth of a millimeter up to one centimeter, despite a very shallow depth of field because the macroscope can magnify between 0 to 400 times.
This camera cannot be transported into the countryside. This is why it is necessary to collect insects in the field and keep them alive until they reach the laboratory. Then, for photographs such as those in the exhibition, the insect’s environment needs to be recreated around it. Ultimately, most insects of the Indian Ocean area will have been photographed and listed in the ePRPV database.
[1] ePRPV - Élargissement et Pérennisation du Réseau de Protection des Végétaux (Enlargement and Sustainability of the Plant Protection Network) is a regional cooperation program between Reunion Island, Mauritius and Rodrigues, Madagascar, the Comoros, the Seychelles and Mozambique.
Its objective is to promote environmentally friendly agriculture and agro-ecological approaches to preserve the exceptional biodiversity of the Southwest Indian Ocean. It is co-funded by Europe, the French government, the Region and the Department of Reunion Island and the Cirad, with the support of the Indian Ocean Commission.
[2] Find an example of a taxonomic board here:
In the local press: Check out articles on the Microportraits exhibition in St. Pierre.