It may be lazy to just take a little hike around Grand Case, but sometimes it’s just really hot out. Besides, there’s plenty to see in the area. The first photos are from the area just across the main road.

One thing that I keep noticing over and over is the localized abundance of various spider species. Whether it’s a tree, or a building or a fence, I frequently find spots where spiders that may not be common throughout the island are present in great numbers. I haven’t done research into it, but I feel like it may have to do with their limited dispersal abilities. Unlike flying insects, spiderlings (baby spiders) disperse on foot, or by ballooning (releasing silk in the air that catches the wind like a kite and blows the spiderling to a new location). In some cases, I think ballooning can take a spiderling quite far, perhaps even to a nearby island. In other cases, where perhaps the wind is limited, I’m guessing spiderlings all take off from one spot, then all get blown to another spot nearby, resulting in increased concentrations in that microhabitat.

In the photos below, the first example is an unidentified sheetweb weaver. I found a number of specimens living on different leaves of the same tree. Just a few meters away, I found concentrations of the prowling spider Teminius insularis and the gray wall jumper on the same stretch of wall.

The next day I had the chance to get a few close-ups of a snowy egret which was doing some sort of hyperventilating thing, perhaps to cool itself down. Nearby, at the semi-secret Étang de Grand Case, I was able to see one of my favorite things, iguanas swimming.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 23rd, 2011 at 11:00 am and is filed under Explorations, Les Fruits sur la Terre. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.