Our research team worked with Nakanai land-holders in Papua New Guinea to perform the first survey of butterflies
in the Lake Hargy caldera of West New Britain Province. Methods included modified Pollard transects quantifying
sampling effort based on aerial netting and visual observations, as well as traps baited with fermenting fruit. Results
were compared with surveys on the adjacent Hargy Oil Palm plantation. Our sampling yielded 312 specimens
representing 73 species; of these, 50 were limited to primary rainforest, 12 to oil palm plantation and 11 species occurred
at both sites. Four species are newly recorded for New Britain, including one potentially invasive species on Citrus.
Singleton specimens made up the largest abundance class in the data set, representing 34% of records in primary
rainforest. Sixty-two percent of the butterfly taxa recorded are regionally endemic to the Bismarck island chain or to
New Britain in particular. Calculated levels of similarity between sites ranged from 0.151 to 0.262, suggesting the oil
palm and rainforest habitats supported highly distinct species assemblages. Although rapid assessment data such as
these are necessarily limited in scope, they can still aid in documenting the impact on biodiversity from conversion of
primary tropical rainforest to oil palm monoculture.
Enacting the Absent State: State-formation on the oil-palm frontier of Pomio (Papua New Guinea)