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Through our collaboration with Air Mauritius and its One Take-off, One Tree programme, the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation since 2017, ensures that an endemic or native tree is planted in either Mauritius or Rodrigues each time an Air Mauritius aircraft takes off from Mauritius.
Metioche (Superstes) superbus
These trees being planted will ultimately densify the forests and form part of the habitats for many fauna species. Today, we wish to let you know more about two of Rodrigues endemic insects, the Metioche (Superstes) superbus and the Metioche (Superstes) payendeei, two cricket species. Both species are 8 cms in length approximately.
The first one is brightly coloured, with turquoise blue lines and a light red colouration on the forewings while the latter is green or brown in colour with white or blue lines. The Metioche (Superstes) payendeei is one of the most threatened species of the planet, it owes its name to Richard Payendee, an ex-staff of the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation and former Environment Commissioner of Rodrigues. The species was discovered by French zoologist Sylvain Hugel and it owes its survival to the restoration works done in the Grande Montagne Nature Reserve (GMNR).
Metioche (Superstes) payendeei
