Latin America - Scientific Expeditions

In October 1969, with his engineering degree in hand and before beginning his professional career, Gilles Clément arrived in Nicaragua. He spent a year there completing his civil service as a teacher at the agricultural high school in Matagalpa. He was accompanied on this journey by a fellow student, Jean-Jacques Pagis. Eager to discover other territories near Nicaragua, Clément took advantage of school holidays to travel to Guatemala and Mexico.

Once his obligations as a cooperative worker ended, in November 1970, and before returning to Paris, he set out with his friend on a journey of nearly four months across Latin America, during which they visited nine countries: Panama, Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, and Brazil. This long journey gave rise to two notebooks recounting the events experienced in the various places they traveled through.

Moreover, because of his lifelong interest in insects, Gilles Clément was invited throughout his life to take part in several scientific expeditions (Cameroon, Madagascar, Gabon, etc.).

In August 1974, during a sampling carried out on the ridge of the Bénoué cliff (Cameroon), he captured what appeared to be a new species of moth. After more in-depth studies conducted by the scientific leaders of the team, this discovery was confirmed. It was published in the Bulletin of the Entomological Society of France (May–June 1975). The moth was then named Bunaeopsis clementi in his honor.

Route of the journey in Latin America. Map drawn by the author. 1971.
Photographs from Nicaragua, the Galápagos Islands, and scientific expeditions in Cameroon and Gabon. 1970, 1974, and 1999.
Moth collected by Gilles Clément during the scientific expedition in Cameroon that bears his name. Insect in an entomological box. 1974.