Learn from the Scientists

Siteri Tikoca is mad about moths! With a fun and bubbly personality and being a night person, she delights in studying these beautiful nocturnal creatures. She feels that moths have not received enough attention and attempts to bridge such an important knowledge gap. One of her favorite moments in the field is when she sees moths come to life in the glimpse of a bright light. She has an MSc from USP, specialising in the ecology and taxonomy of Fiji’s macro-moths. She studies how their diversity and distributional patterns are influenced by habitat types and seasonality. Her aim is to measure the diversity of macro-moth fauna in native forest, exotic forest and mixed forest; at elevations below 400m and including the wet and dry seasons, to identify the influence of seasonality on macro-moth diversity. Her undergraduate degree in Marine Biology also provided her with broad experience studying both plants and animals in the marine, coastal and terrestrial habitats of Fiji. Siteri worked with the South Pacific Regional Herbarium for five years where she was involved in specimen identification and curation, fieldwork for environmental impact assessments and biodiversity assessments, as well as community awareness.