Stéphane De Greef

@stefdegreef.bsky.social

419 Followers 234 Following

Belgium-born explorer, science communicator and more. #entomology #maps #exploration #photography #OSINT www.stephanedegreef.com

Me walking in the jungle around the Angkor temples with rangers. I'm holding a GPS to find my way through the dense vegetation.
Capture d'ecran CIRB montrant une image aérienne du parc Georges Henri.
Capture d'écran Osm avec les bancs du parc de Woluwé
Capture d écran RTBF "Biodiversité: Le nématode du pin, un redoutable globe‑trotteur" AVEC une photo d'un coléoptère.
A few flowers on an unmarked grave in the red soil. In the background, a pond, and a few houses with the windows lit up in the sunset light.
A photo of a Gastropacha moth on white background. It looks exactly like a brown dry tree leaf with the front legs of the moth joint in front of its head to look like the petiole (stalk) of the leaf.
A picture of a weevil seen from the side and looking very similar to the moth just above in the thread.
Une capture d'écran montrant que la face caché de la lune dans le jeu maptag est en fait la face visible de la lune.
A porcupine transferred from a small transport cage into a forest enclosure. Try Sitheng, director of Cambodia Wildlife Care, is baiting them with fruits.
Double rainbow all the way across the skies.
Ciel de mousson au Cambodge
Ciel de début de saison des pluies à Siem Reap au Cambodge. L'avant-plan montre un étang entouré de palmiers à sucre. Le ciel est bleu à l'horizon mais de nombreux nuages blancs et gris sont présents.
A tabby cat casually standing in my bedroom. I have no idea how he entered my apartment.
Screenshot of Inaturalist showing12 picture of insects with their name, 6635 observations, 2000 species and 2690 identifications
A picture of blueish black ants with a distinctive ring on their faster and forming chains to drag a millipede in Cambodia
Equinox - the sun over Angkor Wat in Cambodia this morning.
kuplungos suggested an ID : Superfamily Tineoidea Bagworms, Clothes Moths, and Allies stephane_degreef commented @kuplungos if no one solved that mystery yet, I'll be the one doing it in January when I get back to Cambodia. I'll spend a few days looking for cases that still contain caterpillars and/or pupae and will raise them as per @hkmoths methodology. I can't believe it's been a decade and no one solved this one yet ! As good as Silkhenge ! kuplungos commented Well, I'll just sit back and collect them until we have an answer. Tried to ask around, raise awareness, but got no luck out of that. I've looked through thousands of observations in the general area, collected most of them. A bit of a problem is that these ones look a bit too similar to another species I've seen identified, but the larva still has a distinct flat head like this https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/241066526 https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/269340787 I've been wondering if it's even described or just haven't been connected to the adult form yet. Good luck!
hkmoths commented Edosa is a species rich genus, and undescribed taxa away from Borneo or the Malay peninsula, Sumatra and Java (the Sunda Shelf) should be expected. Gaden Robinson's paper on the Sundanian Edosa (from 2008) is comprehensive, and a must read for fans of 1960s, 70s and 80s rock guitarists, as Gaden named dozens of spp nov - all after famous (or infamous) rock guitarists. species epithets new to the genus in 2008 include andersonella, berryella, bodiddlyella, claptonella, driscollella and plenty more..... https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1017/S1477200008002685 https://www.catalogueoflife.org/data/search?TAXON_ID=632KX&rank=species&status=accepted&status=provisionally%20accepted hkmoths commented and Wolfram Mey could be a person to contact - he described a new South African Edosa in 2019. Mey, W. (2019). Dryadaulidae, Tineidae (Lepidoptera. – In: Mey W. & Krüger M. (Eds), The Lepidoptera fauna of a crater valley in the Great Escarpment of South Africa: The Asante Sana Project.
hkmoths suggested an ID : Family Tineidae hkmoths commented has Edosa vibes - but those labial palps.... very odd. stephane_degreef commented Could it be a new species ? I have already 2-3 adults. Not sure the way to handle these specimens properly (I'm an ant and bee guy !) hkmoths commented pop into a freezer inside a small pot or stopped test tube sp. nov. is not impossible stephane_degreef commented Alright - freezer in test tube ! I'll probably end up with 5-10 specimens. Let's hope for both sexes, then we'll see who's best to ID/describe these.
iNat observation with photos of the golden moth and caption: The famous trilobite moth, that is being searched for since 2017 for its caterpillar hidden in a trilobite-shaped case and probably feeding on lichen on tree bark and the sandstones of the Angkor temples. These are two individuals raised from caterpillars collected in January 2026 in Angkor Botanical Garden.
Screenshot from iNaturalist: stephane_degreef commented Hi everyone ! I've collected two dozens trilobite moths casing over the last months in the Dipterocarp forest of Angkor and kept them in a closed container with bark from host tree and associated lichen. I've kept them in a jar for one or two months, not even knowing if any had survived (they barely move). Today I had an emergence of a tiny moth in the container. It's likely linked as there was no other organism in the containment area. I will provide pictures soon. Stéphane portioid commented that's so cool! can't wait :D stephane_degreef commented Two emergences ! More soon. Very young caterpillars too. They may have lay eggs !
A golden brown moth with a ginger flush of a head resting on a piece of bark.
An iNaturalist observation of a casing with the notes: "I have two live caterpillars and feed for the trilobite moth caterpillars."
A microscope photo of a yellowish caterpillar with a flat-topped dark brown head, next to its sand and lichen casing.
stephane_degreef commented This is exciting ! :) They're common as dirt in Angkor; literally the most common lepidopteran construction encountered in every sandstone temple in the Angkor Archaeological Park. You'll find them on every single sandstone of every temple, but they're a bit more rare in the forests. So it'll be no problem whatsoever to find/collect. What could help is to know what month to collect them to raise my chances of finding more than an empty case. stephane_degreef commented This observation is crucial to me. It tells me we can find tubes with live caterpillars and the head is indeed very distinctive ! I'm on the hunt ! https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/241066526
iNaturalist observation of the casing on white background, with the caption: Notes: Mystery case of a suspected case-bearing caterpillar, apparently made of lichen, sand and silk, always in that shape, about 25mm long. Commonly found on sandstone temples in the Angkor region. Always empty, so they may also be remnants of cocoon after metamorphosis. Never been able to find a caterpillar or adult nearby but it must be a very common species as you can literally find several such structures for every square meter of sandstone wall in Angkor.
A screenshot of my iNaturalist profile page, showing a photo of me in the jungle in 2014, 6558 observations, 1974 species recorded, 2560 identifications provided and 2409 annotations.
One of the caterpillar casings photographed from the top on a perfectly white background. It shows the circular hood attached to the cylindrical case hiding the hypothetical body of a caterpillar. The caterpillar might be feeding on lichen under the hood, protected from ants and other predators.
Another caterpillar casing made of sand, lichen and silk, tightly attached on the underside of a sandstone carving on a wall of Angkor Wat, Siem Reap, Cambodia, on 14 May 2014.
A greenish caterpillar case made of grains of sand and lichen, resting on a green bark. The casing appears to be made of the same lichen that is growing on the bark. This one was photographed on a tree near Prasat Tchroung, in the northwestern corner of the fortress of Angkor Thom, Siem Reap, Cambodia, on 1 December 2013.
A picture of a grey agamid lizard on a tree trunk. Next to its right front leg, and next to right hind leg, two mystery caterpillar casings can be seen on the tree trunk. Their colour is a perfect match for the bark but their regular disc and elongated cone shapes are a dead giveaway.
A top-down photograph of the caterpillar case, showing a granular texture and grey-brown colour making it a perfect camouflage on tree bark and sandstone. This one was photographed on 13 September 2013 on a tree near Daun Mea temple in Angkor Thom temple complex, Siem Reap, Cambodia.
A photo of moth caterpillar case, with a flattened hood and conical tail, resting on a tree bark green from various lichen growths. This particual photo was taken in Ta Prohm temple on 8 August 2013.
Three moth caterpillar cases, apparently made of lichen and dirt, attached to a dark grey sandstone bearing typical flower carvings from the Angkorian period. Discreet green moss and pale green crust lichen can be seen growing on the stone near the casing, which have the overall appearing of trilobites, with a round "head" and a long cylindrical tail. The cases measure about 2.5 centimeters long.
A dorsal (top-view) photography of a tiny golden moth on white background. It has long filiform antennae, ginger setae on the head, a dark collar of setae on the thorax, and the rest of the body and wings is covered in golden scales. The wings hag long golden fringes. The copyright mentions © Stéphane De Greef 2026.
Un café à Siem Reap au Cambodge qui s'appelle le Chafé.
A very small green moth with golden fringe on its wings. It looks like a pokemon version of itself.
Heavy rains in Siem Reap, Cambodia
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Une photo d'une tasse de café latte posé sur une table dans un café de Bruxelles, avec des gens assis à l'arrière plan. A l'avant-plan, une feuille de papier blanc avec pour titre "Déclaration de départ pour l'étranger."
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Screen capture of an ESRI satellite imagery showing roads, trees, grassland and some buildings, but no polygons or lines from OSM editors on top.
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