Insects in Susnguakti forest

Morphopsis albertisii butterfly

For insect watchers, Susnguakti is the most recommended place to visit. I organized a tour for 2 French and 1 Japanese tourists last week. We spent 4 days/ 3 nights hiking, watching birds of paradise, mammals and insects. Several villagers were hired to carry our bags and food. Staying in basecamp in the middle of the forest, we explored the flora and fauna of West Papua. We saw various species of insects. Because, I brought a camera, I could took pictures of them. There were Phasmatodean stick insect, tiger beetle, and Morphopsis albertisii butterfly. Some Cruiser, Ulysses, Silky Owl and Priamus butterflies were seen flying around our basecamp during the day.

Phasmatodean stick insect

Spiders were everwhere. There were fireflies, grasshopper, crickets, dragonflies, and a lot of species of butterflies. Because of the population of insects is abundant, their predators are also abundant. Birds and lizards are the main predators.
I do not have field guide books for identifying insects. So, after returning to Manokwari city, I used internet to find more info about them.
Visitors who are interested in watching insects in Susnguakti forest of Manokwari need to bring camera that has got macro shooting mode and if possible, a magnifying glass.
How to get to Susnguakti forest:

Tiger Butterfly

• Fly from your country to Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia.
• Continue your trip by taking a domestic flight to Manokwari city. Airlines such as Garuda, Sriwijaya Air and Batik Air provide regular flights between Jakarta and Manokwari.
• When you arrive in Manokwari city, I could meet you at the airport and organize your trip to Susnguakti forest.

Please, contact me (Charles Roring) by email to: peace4wp@gmail.com or by whatsapp to: +6281332245180.

Praying Mantis

While I was waiting under a shrub for Magnificent Riflebird to land on the branch of a tree, I saw a praying mantis. This pale green insect climbed a small plant and then stayed on one of its leaves. Perhaps, she was waiting for a prey. I carefully took my camera out of my pocket and aimed it at the beautiful insect. She was not running away when I positioned my camera close to her. I tried several shooting modes to optimize the results. Under the canopy of the forest, the light was not strong. I shot the praying mantis several times. Here is one of the photographs that I made.

Praying Mantis

There were also cruiser butterfly, swallow-tailed blue mountain butterfly, dragonfly, and beetles in the forest. They could easily be seen especially in the clearing area of our basecamp in Susnguakti forest of Manokwari. 

Below is my drawing of Ornithoptera priamus butterfly that was feeding on the nectar of Hibiscus flower. The artwork is now available in prints on various kinds of products such as iPhone case, throw pillow, t-shirt, drawstring bags, greeting card, spiral notebook, and etc.
Please, click the following picture if you are interested in buying them.

Birdwing Buterfly and Hibiscus iPhone case

Rainforest insects Dragonfly from the Table Mountain of Manokwari

Dragon fly can easily be seen when we go hiking in the tropical rainforest of the Table Mountain of Manokwari. A dragonfly looks like a helicopter often hovering above running water or standing still on a tiny stalk of a plant. I like to watch a dragonfly from a close distance. I don't know the number of species that we can find in the rainforest of the bird's head region of Manokwari - West Papua but I believe that there are many of them. Some have red bodies whereas others have dark black or brown colours.

If we want to watch dragonflies from close distance, we must move slowly. Our digital camera should be ready before we walk towards the insects. I saw many dragon flies while hiking a long the banks of a small river in the morning time when the weather was clear. Besides watching dragonflies, we can see other species of rainforest insects in the mountain. by Charles Roring

Rainforest insects in Table Mountain of Manokwari

We are still in rainy season now and green leaves from the vegetation in the rainforest of the Table Mountain of Manokwari grow well. This is a time when rainforest insects such as grasshopper and beetles eat the young green leaves as much as they like to. While hiking in the Table Mountain of Manokwari last November 2010, I came across with various kinds of grasshopper that were eating the young leaves or just taking a rest on a small twig of a tropical plant. Some has colors that look like the plants which they were holding whereas others have dark brown colors.

There are thousands of species of rainforest insects in the tropical rainforest of Manokwari. Unfortunately, I could not identify them all. All I know about them are their main type names such as mosquitoes, beetle, wasp, grasshopper, orb spider, dragonflies, and butterflies.

Insects are delicious food (prey) for birds and lizards. As part of food chain, insects eat the young leaves of forest trees and bushes but they will be eaten by lizards, and birds. Insects are important for the environment because some of them such as butterflies are agents of pollination for flowers plants.
Ecotourism activities which tourists can do in the Table Mountains of Manokwari that are related to rainforest insects are insect watching, and photographing. Because the rainforest in the area is protected by government, insect collecting is simply not allowed. Other activities that I recommend is hiking, caving and mountain biking. The tropical rainforest of the Table Mountain is not far from the city. It takes only less than 15 minutes to reach it by public transportation such as ojek and taxi. Don't forget to bring some snacks, water, and mosquito repellent lotion if you want to walk through the forest. For those who want to do the caving trip, hiking shoes and lamps are needed for that purpose. by Charles Roring
Also read:

• Watching beetles
• Watching butterfly

Butterfly Watching in Manokwari

Butterflies in Manokwari are beautiful insects which you can watched in the Table Mountain, in the Northern Coast region, in the islands of the Dorey bay and in the Arfak Mountain. Tropical butterflies of Papua island have many colors and are of various sizes. Butterflies can easily be found among vegetation that have flowers. Don't forget to bring your own binoculars and digital camera to photograph butterflies that have beautiful and colorful wings. 

If you want to study more about butterflies of Papua, you can check the book about it on Amazon.com. I don't know whether such book exists or not. You can watch butterflies in north coast forest of Manokwari during the sunny days. To go hiking and butterfly watching in Arfak mountains, you can contact me Charles Roring as your guide via my email: peace4wp@gmail.com or cell phone/ whatsapp +6281332245180.

Butterflying and insect watching in general is not a common activity that foreign tourists do when coming to Manokwari of West Papua, but as a tourist guide, I can escort you and show you around the places  where there are butterflies feeding on nectar in the wild flowers in the Table Mountain of Manokwari  city of the Papua Barat province of the Republic of Indonesia