July 8th, 2011 by Marc AuMarc

In the moist forests of Saba, snails are very common and probably more noticeable than any other invertebrates. With only a couple exceptions however, the snails I encountered were all the same or very similar species of helicinid snail. This family of snails is actually quite interesting for a few reasons. One is that they are primarily found in a few locations that are quite far from each other: the Caribbean, Pacific islands and parts of Asia and Australia. They also moved to land independently of other snails, and their closest relatives are snails that live in either marine or fresh water environments.



July 7th, 2011 by Marc AuMarc

In June, I visited Saba for just one day of hiking with the SXM Trails hiking association. It’s a small and beautiful volcanic island just twelve minutes away by plane and about two hours by ferry. Much newer than St. Martin, it is part of an arc of younger islands (or St. Martin is part of an arc of older islands) that sit beside each other in the northern part of the Lesser Antilles. It is known as The Unspoiled Queen, which is pretty accurate. With steep slopes and a lack of natural harbors, it is sparsely populated and very beautiful.

This first set of photos shows some views of Saba from the ferry, the towns of The Bottom and Windwardside and a few other hilltops and landscapes.

Saba is also an island where, to me, the plant life is probably more outstanding than the animal life. The top of Mount Scenery catches a cloud almost every day, providing plenty of water, and the height of the island naturally creates a variety of habitats, from tropical scrubland at the lower elevations to rainforest and elfin cloud forest near the top. I really didn’t photograph very many plants, the tree ferns are particularly wonderful, but here are a few. Some of the flowers were in town, so I’m not sure which are likely to be native.



July 7th, 2011 by Marc AuMarc

I have many things to post, including photos from the SXM Trails trip to Saba and two weeks of photos from our Les Fruits de Mer expedition to Costa Rica. First, though, a few shots of a baby iguana. They’re so cute at this age.



June 15th, 2011 by Marc AuMarc

A couple days ago I spent an evening hour doing field research. Specifically, seeing what was in the field behind the public parking lot in Grand Case. In fact, there was quite a lot going on there. There were a bunch of species of true bug (Hemiptera) that I have been struggling to identify. There were also lots of insects mating. I guess evening is a good time for that.



June 15th, 2011 by Marc AuMarc

Below are some photos of three species of bat in La Grotte du Puits des Terres Basses. This is the first time I have seen the greater bulldog bat, Noctilio leporinus. It is also known as the fisherman bat, because it catches fish. Amazingly, it does this at night by using echolocation to detect disturbances in the surface of the water, then swooping down to catch the fish. Also visible in the photos are many young Antillean fruit-eating bats.

Look carefully and you may also see streblid flies, which are also known as bat flies because they are bat parasites, some of which may use only a single species of bat as hosts. Just another example of the fascinating wonders of nature that are happening on the island every day, unnoticed amid the bustle and development.



June 13th, 2011 by Marc AuMarc

This set of photos shows a cricket molting. The species is probably from the tribe Hapithini, although I am having some difficulty figuring out which genus and species it is, as there are few images online from this group. I have seen a number of these colorful crickets on the island, but this is the first time I’ve happened upon one while it is molting.



June 13th, 2011 by Marc AuMarc

When I was out finding stick insects, I found more. Much more! There were, of course, spiders. I was particularly interested to see many orb weavers from the genus Eustala. Apparently, some members of this genus normally hide during the day and only spin their webs at night. This explains how they can be so common at night in an area where I rarely see them during the day.

There were a variety of other creatures, including caterpillars, strange moths, a millipede with flies on its head, and some sleepin’ lizards.



June 10th, 2011 by Marc AuMarc

Before a few nights ago, I had only seen a walking stick (or stick insect, or phasme, or phasmid) on the island on one occasion. Apparently this was not so much because they are rare or even so difficult to spot, but I just wasn’t looking properly. By scanning the trees overhead on the roadside with a flashlight, I was able to find six or seven in perhaps an hour. My sources think it is a species that was recently discovered in Puerto Rico in the genus Clonistria. The green ones in the images below are females, and they are immature. The brown ones are the males.

Phasmids are interesting because many islands harbor endemic species, and also because they look really cool. I found these on a variety of different trees and shrubs.



June 9th, 2011 by Marc AuMarc

I’m not sure of the actual name of the hill, but the road near it is called Round Hill Road, so that’s how I’m referring to it. It’s the hill that rises up towards Mont O’Reilly from Grand Case, behind the Caribbean Queen pharmacy. I took a walk up there a few days ago and found quite a few interesting critters. I don’t have a lot to say about them at the moment, because I need to do some serious work to identify many of them. In general, the area is pretty lush for such a low hill and there’s quite a lot to be seen there. It also offers plenty of opportunities to get poked and scratched by a variety of thorny shrubs.



June 7th, 2011 by Marc AuMarc


St. Martin Book Fair
A few photos of our booth from the 9th annual St. Martin Book Fair, at events in Concordia and at the University of St. Martin in Philipsburg.