I obtained some mosquito larvae and a selection of photos are below. The aquatic larvae don’t particularly resemble the adults, particularly in the earlier stage when they have round heads, but they do have little hairs that the adults also possess. As you can see below, as the larvae get closer to adulthood, the head and thorax become more distinct, and the larvae as a whole resemble shorter-legged, wingless versions of the adult. All specimens were fatally, and I think somewhat justifiably, harmed in the making of this post. For some scale, the honeycomb of the background is the quilting of a paper towel.

After diving The Tugboat, we took advantage of calm seas to dive Basse Espagnole. A large reef area that rises to 3.5 meters below the surface, Basse Espagnole is one of the best reefs in the area and features underwater caves, canyons and other interesting topographical features.

Shortly after descending, we found an unattended patch of fish eggs on a rock surface that was being greedily consumed by a variety of fish species. Nearby, a small cave was home to schooling silversides and glassy sweepers. A bit later in the dive, Stuart spotted a nurse shark sleeping under a rock ledge. A variety of other tropical species rounded out a fantastic dive.

Below are some photos from a dive at The Tugboat, near Tintamarre on January 11th. As usual, both the wreck and the nearby reef were filled with a variety of tropical fish. A special treat was a pike blenny hiding in a tube of coral skeleton in the sandy area beside the wreck. The visible portion of the fish was about 1 cm.

On January 10th, we again commandeered the dingy to explore the Creole Rock area. Heading northeast, we rounded the shallows where we saw more than a dozen spiny lobsters clustered in a crevice in an undersea wall. From there we went into the channel between Creole Rock and Bell Point, but found it mostly just sea grass beds. Curving around to the back side of the rock, we found a southern stingray (Dasyatis americana) and I briefly saw a spotted eagle ray (Aetobatus narinari in the distance.

As we returned around the rock, four more spotted eagle rays swam by together, and while Madam J swam after them shooting video, I was able to get a few photos of the fifth member of the group, which was following slightly behind. There were several isopods clinging to the right side of his face.

During the dive we also saw an initial phase redband parrotfish (Sparisoma aurofrenatum) being cleaned by some pederson cleaner shrimp (Periclimenes pedersoni), a fairy basslet (Gramma loreto) swimming upside down in a small cave, a pair of graysby (Cephalopholis cruentatus) in another cave and what seemed to be some very small bulb tunicates (Clavelina spp.) clinging to sea grass, which I had first mistaken for fish eggs.

Yesterday Madam J and I borrowed a dingy and explored the Creole Rock area on scuba for about 75 minutes. I took the 85mm macro lens that she gave me for Christmas, so this was my first proper underwater test of the lens.

Although the visibility was not great, the lens was quite good for capturing shots of small fishes and crustaceans. One interesting thing we found was a bed of sergeant major (Abudefduf saxatilis) eggs. Approximately one square foot of eggs was laid on the surface of a large rock. The eggs being about the size of sturgeon caviar, it was not surprising to learn that female sergeant majors may lay as many as 20,000 eggs.

The bright red bigeyes (Priacanthus arenatus) made good subjects, as they seemed uninterested in the photographer. Another interesting sight was a hamlet (Genus Hypolectrus) that has some features of both the yellowbelly (Hypoplectrus aberrans) and barred (Hypolectrus puella) hamlets. Other fishes encountered included juvenile slippery dick (Halichoeres bivattus), blackear wrasse (Halichoeres poeyi), juvenile french angelfish (Pomacanthus paru), orangespotted filefish (Cantherhines pullus), bluestripe grunt (Haemulon sciurus), peacock flounder (Bothus lunatus) and sand diver (Synodus intermedius).

In this installment of Saint Martin creatures, we have:

• A large wasp that digs tunnels in the sand, probably where its larvae feed on insects it brings to them.
• A millipede that had crawled all the way to the top of our 2nd story veranda wall.
• An insect carrying its home up our wall. It is likely the larva of a flying insect that will emerge from the structure after pupating on the side of the building.
• A couple shots of the local gecko.
• A large katydid that was resting on Paul’s at night.
• A juvenile cockroach.

Below are an assortment of sponge and coral skeletons found on the rocky shore near Bell Point. Amongst the sponges, it is interesting to note the wide variety of shapes that share the same underlying structure.

Pinel Islet and Little Key are two small islands in the marine reserve. Pinel is a popular snorkeling destination, while Little Key is seldom visited. Strong winds and surf over the past week left the conditions less than optimal, with relatively poor visibility on both sides of Pinel. We snorkeled in three locations: the backside (sea side) of Pinel, the front side (St. Martin-facing) side of Pinel, and a circumnavigation of Little Key.

I took my new 85mm macro lens underwater for the first time, and it wasn’t the most practical choice for the situation. As you can see from the photos, it has the potential to be great to shoot small, flighty fishes. At the same time, it is difficult to use (as any lens would be) for snorkeling as it is hard to maintain a fixed position. Debris in the water also made it difficult to focus at times, when the camera focused on the debris rather than the subject.

Still, we had an excellent exploration, particularly when we swam out to Little Key for the first time. The coral there is generally healthier than that in the designated snorkeling area of Pinel. We found a scorpionfish, schools of young grunts with a few yellowtail snappers mixing in, trumpetfish and many other creatures. The general topography is shallow corals mixed with sea plants on the side facing Pinel, which shifts to sandy and grassy shallows facing St. Martin. Wrapping around the island, facing St. Barths, there is deeper water, maybe 20-25 feet with various soft corals and sponges, often growing on the dead skeletons of large elkhorn corals.

Last night I made a brief excursion to photograph some nocturnal animals and found a fair number of them on a short walk. I encountered several beetles, the large black one with the iridescence gave off a very strong minty, but musky smell when touched. There were also a couple species of moths, which hopefully I can identify later, a hemipteran and a wasp. The best insect was a mantis fly, which is a name given to many insects from a family related to lacewings that have front legs that resemble those of the praying mantis – which is a great example of convergent evolution, and looks cool.

The most interesting sighting was an anole in the process of eating a beetle. I was also struck by the shyness of geckos. For an animal that can speed across any surface with velcro toes, it seems like they should be less afraid of a passing photographer. They are, however, the only lizard that seems unafraid to sit on a wall where they are entirely uncamouflaged.

I was hoping to get some photos of the local giant centipedes ever since I saw part of one that had been squished on the road. Last night I saw one, but didn’t have my camera. Luckily, today I got some help from a bird, which was attempting to eat one in the yard next door to the dive shop. As you may be able to make out from the photos, the bird was thrashing the centipede, then gingerly leaping away for a moment to check its progress. When the bird noticed me, I got some pretty nasty glares before it flew off.

The centipede seems to be of genus Scolopendra, which are large, venomous centipedes that capture anything they can hold onto, including lizards and even bats. This particular specimen was approximately 6-7 inches long. It survived the bird attack, and mostly stayed still during the photo session, perhaps trying to avoid drawing attention to itself. I wouldn’t say this technique worked, but then again, I didn’t eat it.