by Roman YAKOVLEV, Cand. Sc. (Biol.), Research Assistant of the Southern Siberian Botanical Gardens of Altai State University (Barnaul) Studies of the subtropical and tropical regions are an important task for all contemporary biologists in the whole world, since many insect species are still unknown to science. Thus, in April 2011, I as a research assistant of the Botanical Gardens of Altai State University was lucky to take part in an exciting and cognitive (both for scientists and general public) trip to some countries of South-East Africa as a member of the Russian Entomological Expedition and register some important observations. PLANS OF THE EXPEDITION It must be mentioned that my colleagues--biologists from Moscow, Saratov, Ulyanovsk, and Novosibirsk have already visited various African countries 6 times (South Africa, Zambia, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Lesotho, Mozambique, Malawi, Congo and Ghana) to study local biological diversity. As a result of these trips, the scientists published over thirty articles in the leading zoological journals of the world. Two years ago 1 also accepted an invitation to participate in a similar scientific expedition headed by Vasily Kovtunovich, Cand. Sc. (Biol.), from Moscow, and Pyotr Ustyuzhanin, Cand. Sc. (Biol.), from Novosibirsk. Now it is time to tell you briefly about our scientific plans. We planned to make a trip to national parks of the north-western part of South Africa, then move to Zim- стр. 107 babwe and Mozambique and finally to Malawi, where we intended to survey rain forests along the Nyasa Lake, third by area and southernmost of all lakes of the Great Rift Valley in East Africa, covering a deep hollow in the earth crust between Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania. The lake is spread from north to south for 560 km and is 706 m deep. The lake ranks third in area and ninth in depth (after Baikal and Tanganyika) among fresh water lakes of the world. It contains 7 percent o ... Читать далее