Portuguese 
Entomologist Gabriela Procópio Camacho is pictured with a rubber hose in her mouth, sucking termites from a branch at 1,260 meters above sea level. This is her method at the summit of Serra do Aracá, a sandstone plateau in the far north of the Amazon where nine researchers have been working since August 24, 2026.
The location is difficult to access and therefore little known.
The plateau is about 220 kilometers north of Barcelos, in the Rio Negro, and consists of a tepui, a type of mountain with a flat top and vertical walls that acts like an island of life isolated above the forest.
Those who reach it find an ecosystem that does not interact with what exists on the plain just below.
-
Smallholder with Active Family Farming Registration Secures 260,000 Tons of Corn from Conab, Five Times the Previous Limit After Interministerial Ordinance No. 47 Expansion
-
Family Farmers Growing Potatoes in São Paulo Deduct 13.73% from Pronaf Installments; Yams from Espírito Santo Also Added to List of 20 Subsidized Products
-
Brazilian Company Develops 48 m² Home That Travels Compactly in a Truck, Expands On-Site with Two Bedrooms, Living Room, Kitchen, and Bathroom
-
Parents Can Now Obtain National Identity Card for Children and Infants: First Issuance Free, Replacement Costs in Santa Catarina Defined
Insects by Day, Amphibians by Night: Routines Divide the Clock
The expedition operates in two shifts because the fauna does as well.
During the day, the entomology team sweeps trunks, leaves, and litter in search of insects, and when it gets dark, it’s the herpetologists who venture out with headlamps in search of amphibians, taking advantage of the time when frogs and toads sing to find them.
It’s the same territory covered twice, with completely different results.
Five Days of Collecting and Over One Hundred Plant Specimens
The initial numbers highlight the extent of what a tepui holds.
In the first five days, the team had already gathered over 100 specimens of plants, between 8 and 9 species of amphibians, and 4 to 5 species of lizards.
Among the birds, three individuals of the hummingbird Colibri delphinae were recorded, and the mammal survey accounted for a rodent of the genus Zygodontomys.
It is important to emphasize that these are preliminary results, counted in the first week of ongoing research.
Nine Researchers from Five Different Institutions
The composition of the team explains why the collection covers so many groups simultaneously.
Participating in entomology is Gabriela Procópio Camacho from the Museum of Zoology at USP, while ornithology is represented by Luis Fábio Silveira and Igor Alvarenga from the same institution.
Botany is led by Vania Nobuko Yoshikawa from Inpa and Jenifer de Carvalho Lopes from the Missouri Botanical Garden, while mammalogy includes Alexandre Percequillo from Esalq-USP and Ana Paula Carmignotto from UFSCar.
In herpetology are Miguel Trefaut Rodrigues and Taran Grant from the Institute of Biosciences at USP.
Field Work Begins in the Laboratory, Months Before
One of the statements recorded during the expedition dismantles the romantic image of improvised collecting.
According to the team’s botanist, fieldwork starts in the laboratory, and before arriving there, the group read several articles to understand what to look for, where to search, and what had already been documented in the region.
Without this preparation, researchers spend days collecting what is already cataloged.
Why the Frog’s Song Needs to Be Recorded Along with the Animal
This is the most interesting methodological detail of the nighttime work.
The herpetologist explained that it is important to accurately identify the individual that is singing for various reasons, as in amphibians, the song often serves as one of the criteria that differentiate similar species that are too alike for the eye to distinguish.
Recording the sound without knowing which animal it came from renders half of the data useless.
The Urgency Reflected in the Director’s Words
Expeditions to tepuis are expensive, depend on heavy logistics and a favorable weather window, and this is evident in the team’s tone.
The director of the Museum of Zoology summarized the urgency by stating that the faster they arrive, the better, because time is money, and one cannot waste a valuable opportunity like this.
The entomologist echoed this sentiment, affirming that this is a unique chance for collection, and that she wants to sample as many insects as possible.
The Rubber Hose is a Serious Tool, Not an Improvised Device
I admit that the image of the researcher sucking up termites may seem quaint, and that is exactly why it needs explaining.
The device is a manual vacuum that has been used for decades in entomology to capture small, fragile insects without crushing them, and the researcher generates suction with their own breath while a filter prevents the insect from reaching their mouth.
It is inexpensive, silent, and works in places where no electronic equipment would function.
A Tepui Functions as an Island, and Islands Produce Unique Species
It is worth explaining why a flat-topped mountain is of such interest to biologists.
The summit is isolated from the forest by its own sandstone wall, and populations that ascend and remain there cease to exchange genes with those in the lowlands, which over time tends to produce forms that exist on that summit and nowhere else on the planet.
This is the same principle that makes oceanic archipelagos rich in exclusive species, applied to a stone island surrounded by jungle.
This is why the preliminary count of eight to nine amphibian species within five days draws attention in such a restricted area.
To add to this, the fact that Serra do Aracá is more than two hundred kilometers from the nearest municipality drastically reduces the number of expeditions that have been able to work there over the past decades, increasing the chances that the material collected now will bring surprises.
What a Collection Like This Produces After the Team Descends
The fieldwork is the visible and shortest part of the process.
Each specimen collected becomes a record in a scientific collection, with date, coordinates, altitude, and method noted, and it is this collection that allows someone, years later, to compare populations, describe a new species, or detect that something has disappeared from an area.
The complete field diary of the expedition, with photos and the names of the entire team, was published by Agência FAPESP on September 8, 2026.
One could spend a lifetime in Brazil without knowing that flat-topped mountains exist in northern Amazonas. Share in the comments if you had heard of Serra do Aracá before.
What do you imagine still exists without a scientific name atop an isolated Amazonian mountain?
