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The Great Falkland Islands Bug Hunt By
Major Charles M.S. Kirke, R.A. I had no idea at the time, but I was very lucky indeed to be posted at the end of lat year to a four month tour in the Falkland Islands at HQ-BFFI, but for a somewhat unusual reason: Bugs! Not those intrusive little devices that lurk in spy stories enabling the Baddies to overhear how Olga the Beautiful Spy is getting on with our Hero, but real six-legged walking, flying, leaping, genuine creepy crawlies. now you might be a little distracted by mental pictures of Olga the Beautiful Spy, but let me assure you that the insects of the Falkland Islands are outstandingly interesting as well. And they are almost unexplored, which laves lots of room for the budding young Gunner entomologist to be a pioneer in this field. Having been interested in moths for some years, I contacted the Natural History Museum in London for a list of South Atlantic moths when I heard I was off to the Falklands. However, I was immediately told that there was no definitive list, and I was then asked to catch some for them - and while I was about it, would I please collect beetles, flies, ladybirds - in fact anything that had six legs and moved. I came away from the Museum with a suitcase full of all sorts of strange gear, ranging from nets to test-tubes and from pins to tweezers, and with the encouragement and advice of many high-powered entomologists. It was most fortunate that my tour covered the South Atlantic summer, not because I missed a nasty cold winter in Yorkshire but because the summer is, of course, the season when insects are most abundant. The first month, November, was quiet but that gave me every opportunity to get to learn how to use a butterfly net, the quick flip of the hand with the test-tube, and the right sharp suck of the pooter (the what? well never mind it would take too long to explain, but I left one on Mount Harriet if anyone cares to look for it). Then in December and January there were more bugs to hunt than any one man could manage, and the Kirke collection grew considerably. The first moths came out just before Christmas, and I had the unique distinction to catch the first one ever caught with a light trap in the Falklands on 19th December. By that time news of my project had got around a bit and I received considerable help from other members of HQ-BFFI and from Stanley residents, usually in the form of mysteriously rustling matchboxes placed on my desk first thing in the morning. I also managed to mobilise the Stanley Boy Scouts who caught all sorts of creatures in miniature pitfall traps. I was able to examine the insect profile of two areas in some detail because HQ-BFFI moved from Stanley to Mount Pleasant half way through my tour. As well as extensive and regular bug hunting in those areas I was able to visit a few outlying stations myself and had offerings of insects from many other corners of the Islands, so that, in the end, the collection numbered over 2,000 specimens. Now, accommodation is somewhat cramped in the Falklands and I had to make room by sending consignments of insects home to the Natural History Museum. This was achieved by giving a succession of visitors from the UK small parcels which they very kindly delivered by hand, thus ensuring the specimens suffered no damage in transit. This method worked in all cases but one, when a kindly and highly respectable Commander RN was arrested as a drug smuggler because the sniffer dogs at Brize Norton liked the smell of moths. There are obviously hidden risks in being an entomologist. But what of the results of this study? At first glance, the insects of the Falklands look much like the insects of Britain. However, on detailed inspection there are one or two interesting differences. The most significant factor that all the insects have to cope with is the wind. The Falklands wind blows almost constantly and with great gusto. This is not so bad for the creatures which stick to the ground, but for flying insects it is quite a problem. And it is a particular problem for those which live anywhere near the sea. If you are a fly or a moth, once you have been blown off-shore there is nowhere to land for hundreds of miles, so you must stay overland or a watery grave awaits you. This means that all flying insects are either strong, powerful fliers, or can switch off and rest on the ground while the wind is blowing and wait for the occasional still day. They also have a habit of seeking shelter in areas away from the wind - such places as rocks, ditches or the leeside of buildings. The wind also causes the Bug Hunter to adapt his behaviour. You are just not going to see, let alone catch, a fly on the wing in a 30 knot wind, and light traps built for Europe would be blown to pieces in a very short time. This meant first that I had to study the behaviour of the insects so that I could find them at rest, and second that I had to adapt the moth trap. Finding the resting sites of the bugs was not terribly difficult but spotting them certainly was difficult because their camouflage was excellent. However, once you have found them you have one relatively easy chance to catch them because they are reluctant to leave their sheltered spot. But you have only one chance because, whether they can fly or not, they tend to take cover in the thick grass and make their escape on foot at amazing speed once they are disturbed. The ruggedisation of the moth trap was done on sound military principles: I built a miniature rock sangar around it and strapped it together with black tape (where would we be without black tape?). Apart from the insects' behavioural adaptations to the wind, there were some remarkable physical changes in the insects, which probably makes them a unique population on earth. For example, there is a small crane-fly (daddy-long-legs), about the size of a large mosquito, with no wings; and there are wingless flies that crawl about on the sand dunes on the shoreline; and there is at least one species of flightless jumping moth. I caught the jumping moth while on a short expedition to New Island, almost the westernmost spot in the Falklands Archipelgao where I stayed with a most hospitable and friendly family. like most of the Falklands, it is virtually untouched by man, except for sheep grazing, but there is a special superabundance of wildlife there. So for three days I hunted bugs among rare birds, seals, plants I could not even guess the names of, and hundreds of thousands of penguins. At night I set the trusty moth trap and sat among wheeling thousands of Prion birds which hunt fish by day and return to earth burrows on the shoreline at night. New Island is a truly remarkable place. The jumping moth, which seems to live near the burrows of the Prion birds, turned out to be the most exciting discovery of my project because it was quickly found by the Natural History Museum to be new to Science. There may be other new creatures in my collection, but it will take some time before they are properly investigated. Indeed, in the case of the crane-flies, it may even be many years, because at the moment there is no-one expert enough anywhere in the world to sort mine out. Crane Fly Entomology is obviously not attracting the right sort of scientist at the moment. In conclusion, I can heartily recommend bug hunting to anyone going on a Falklands tour. Of course, there is an enormous amount of military work to be done (the Garrison works a very full six day week) but one of the joys of bug hunting is that you can do it anywhere and at any time so it can be fitted into little corners in the day. And it adds a whole new dimension to an unaccompanied tour 8,000 miles from home! The above article first appeared in the September 1987 issue of Gunner, the magazine of the Royal Regiment of Artillery. Charles Kirke has since said that the new moth, which he found, will be known in English as Chater's Leaping Moth. Its scientific Latin name has yet to be worked out. This article appeared in the Falkland Islands Newsletter, Edition 33, November 1987. The Falkland Islands Association is an independent organisation which brings together those who support the continuing freedom of the people of the Falkland Islands. Its Constitution states that its objectives are to assist the people of the Falkland Islands to decide their own future for themselves without being subjected to pressure direct or indirect from any quarter.
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