Julien Touroult, who coordinated the terrestrial component of the project for the PatriNat center, understood that to truly know a landscape, one must look at its most humble residents. While previous missions had scoured the tropical canopies of Papua New Guinea and Madagascar, this journey through the mountains and deserts of Corsica represented the first time the program turned such a rigorous gaze toward European soil. The team moved through the terrain with meticulous care, using traps for the insects of the air and extractors to find the tiny life forms hidden within the leaf litter of the forest floor.
Among the discoveries is the Hyloicus corsica, a pine hawkmoth whose life is intricately woven into the island’s ancient forests. To identify these creatures with certainty, the researchers employed DNA barcoding, distinguishing between species that might appear identical to the human eye but carry unique genetic signatures. These findings are now housed in the National Natural Heritage Inventory, where they serve as a practical guide for local land managers. For Touroult, this work is a gift to the future—a precise, scientific archive of the island’s life that ensures the next generation does not inherit a world they do not understand.