Growing up, French native Christophe Barthélemy (Chris) loved books by renowned entomologist Jean-Henri Fabre, “The Homer of Insects”. He has always believed that science can make progress in mankind; in addition to appreciating nature as an art, he is also interested in the science behind it. Fifteen years ago, Chris set up a malaise trap in his garden in Hong Kong. He began conducting insect surveys and sent the specimens he made to the Natural History Museum in London and California Academy of Sciences. Since then, Chris has narrowed his research on wasps and bees, hiking weekly to make observations in the wild. To learn more about the habits of solitary wasps, he built bamboo traps in his garden to attract wasps to lay eggs. "Humans have probably catalogued only about 10% of all insects on this planet. There's a huge amount of species to be discovered...We are talking about an amazing diversity," he says.

Chris has been collaborating with Prof. Benoit Guénard at the University of Hong Kong to publish research papers on new wasp species. In 2020 alone, they have published articles on three new species in the family Crabronidae - Psenulus ephippius, Psenulus gibbus and Psenulus pallens. As a professor at the university, Guénard has not been able to dedicate time for field trips; collaborations with amateur naturalists like Chris are therefore essential. Having passed down field investigation skills to Chris for his observations, discoveries made by Chris would be verified and published in collaboration with Guénard’s team.