IndoBioSys – Indonesian Biodiversity Discovery System – aims at developing new approaches to discover and describe Indonesian biodiversity. The ZSM is, in cooperation with the Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense, Research Center for Biology – LIPI in Cibinong, Indonesia, establishing a novel high-throughput biodiversity discovery pipeline that is based on DNA barcoding as efficient means to assess the biodiversity of region that is among the world’s top biodiversity hotspots.

Malaise trap for collecting insects set up in the study area

The first field expedition to the study area, the Halimun-Salak National Park in West Java, was conducted during September and October 2015. A team of specialists from Germany, Austria, the UK, and their project partners from the Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense, Research Center for Biology – LIPI (MZB) collected their taxa of interest using a range of different standardised methods, including Malaise traps, net sweeping, and light trapping.

Novie Safita from Universitas Andalas in Padang, Sumatra, taking images of voucher specimens with a Keyence VHX-5000 digital microstope at the ZSM.

The samples that were obtained during the field trip are currently being processed at the MZB in Cibinong and the ZSM in Munich. Since November 2015, nearly 4,000 samples have been processed. The first results reflect the high quality of the samples and are most promising for establishing an efficient and standardized system for species identification of the poorly known Indonesian fauna.

The majority of specimens that are present in the Malaise trap and sweep net samples belong to groups of organisms that are known to be very diverse in tropical countries but very little known yet. It is estimated that well over 90% of the species discovered as part of the project will be new to science, in particular Hymenoptera, Diptra, and Coleoptera. All barcoding voucher specimens are deposited at the MZB in Cibinong, Indonesia.

IndoBioSys voucher specimens processed for DNA barcoding (to row from left to right : Hymenoptera: Braconidae, Lepidoptera: Geometridae: Mnesiloba, Coleoptera; middle row: Lepidoptera: Geometridae: Polynesia, Hymenoptera: Apoidea, Hymenoptera: Chrysididae; bottom row: Hymenoptera: Vespidae: Eumeninae, Lepidoptera: Geometridae: Tristeirometra, Coleoptera).

Stefan Schmidt / ZSM
Olga Schmidt / ZSM

Contact
Dr. Bruno Cancian, coordinator
indobiosys-zsm@zsm.mwn.de