the first systematic studies of the insect life of the islands she visited in the South Pacific. Her findings challenged the belief of her time that insect species of the south-west Pacific were most closely related to those of Australia. Her work supported theories about the spread of populations in the area that indicated life in New Guinea was Asian in origin rather than Australian. A number of insect species are named after her including the recently described true bug Costomedes cheesmanae. Amphibians and reptiles She also collected reptiles and amphibians, and several New Guinea species were named in her honour: Platymantis cheesmanae Parker, 1940 – Cyclops Range ground frog (Ceratobatrachidae) Barygenys cheesmanae Parker, 1936 – Mt. Tafa burrowing frog (Microhylidae) Cophixalus cheesmanae Parker, 1934 – Cheesman's hill-forest frog (Microhylidae) Nyctimystes cheesmani or Litoria cheesmani (Tyler, 1964) – Cheesman's big-eyed treefrog (Hylidae) Lipinia cheesmanae Parker, 1940 – Cheesman's lipinia, Cheesman's moth skink (Scincidae) The tree frog is interesting in that the herpetologist who described it, has used the masculine genitive ending 'i' instead of the feminine 'ae', showing an assumption that the collector must have been a man. Cryptids In New Guinea, Cheesman briefly investigated the mysterious flying lights now called "ropen lights," decades before the late-20th Century and early 21st Century ropen expeditions. In her book The Two Roads of Papua, she dismissed the possibility that the lights are from "any human agency." Nevertheless, her investigation did not acknowledge the possibility of a cryptid, therefore she is not labelled a cryptozoologist. Orchids In 2013, Cheesman was credited as the discoverer of one of the very few blue-flowered epiphytic orchids known to exist, Dendrobium azureum. Records showed that she had collected the specimen on 17 June 1938 on the summit of Mt. Nok, an extinct volcano on the remote island of Waigeo, off New Guinea. Cheesman describes collecting the orchids in her book Six-legged Snakes in New Guinea: "Pushing through the scrub, beautiful sprays of orchids forced themselves on your attention by brushing your face. The next few steps would have to be tunnelled through climbing fern, and then more orchids on trees with moisture continuously dripping off fringes of moss. Large clusters of a leguminous bloom like white acacia drooped from small trees. There were cream, pale lemon, and brilliant blue orchids, but the colours orange and scarlet predominated, flaming out of the green." Her blue orchid specimens were