Location, aims Long Island's biota was destroyed by volcanic eruption in c. 1645, and Motmot, an emergent island in its caldera lake, was re‐created in 1968, providing a nested pair of natural colonization sequences. In 1999 we surveyed the plants and vertebrates of Long and the entire biota of Motmot for comparison with previous surveys of Long (1932, 1972, birds only) and Motmot (1969–88). Results The known flora of Long is...

Aim In a 1999 expedition we surveyed the non‐avian vertebrates recolonizing a volcanic island off the north coast of Papua New Guinea, and the more recently emerged islet in its caldera lake. It is our intention with this research to document the reassembly of an ecosystem after a cataclysmic event at two temporal stages. Location Long Island, 55 km north of Papua New Guinea, erupted explosively in the seventeenth century. Its...