Michaël Manuel is a Professor at Sorbonne Université in Paris and Deputy Director of the Institute of Systematics, Evolution, Biodiversity (ISYEB). Over the course of his research career, he has explored several facets of animal evolutionary biology, including the evolution of development, the reconstruction of the animal tree of life, and, more recently, the adaptation of the chemosensory system in beetle lineages that transitioned from terrestrial to aquatic environments. He has loved insects since childhood and, as a taxonomist, has specialised in the study of diving beetles (family Dytiscidae), describing new species from various regions of the world. His native language is French; he is quite fluent in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, also reading Latin and having some knowledge of Malagasy. He began studying High Valyrian as a hobby and became fascinated by this constructed language, which has now become his everyday speak-alone tongue.
This text is a travel journal written in High Valyrian during an entomological expedition in French Guiana in September 2025. It is a day-by-day account of the journey—places visited, people met, anecdotes, as well as brief descriptions of our fieldwork on water beetles.
The text is given in two versions: the original handwritten notebook, and a typed version of the same text.
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