The 9th annual St. Martin Book Fair was last weekend, and we were lucky enough to have a table at some of the events for The Incomplete Guide to the Wildlife of Saint Martin. The book fair was very fun and it was wonderful to see all the people creating, promoting and enjoying St. Martin culture. Highlights included a speech and poetry reading by Nobel prize winner Derek Walcott and the launch of the new cookbook From Yvette’s Kitchen to Your Table. My personal favorite experiences from the book fair were having our table swarmed by kids who wanted to know all about the animals on the island and getting to know Yvette’s daughter Jewel as we finished up the last of the wine after everyone else left the closing ceremony.

I took a little walk across the main road from Grand Case to where I had found the tiny hairstreak in December, and the area was quite different. Although the rains have started and the vegetation is growing quickly there, none of the plants that made up the bulk of the flowers in December are in bloom now. And, of course, I didn’t see any of the tiny hairstreaks that were so fond of those flowers.

Leucauge argyra is probably the most commonly seen orchard spider on the island, but it was still quite a treat to see a pair mating near Grand Case the other day. I noticed a pair of the spiders on a low-hanging tree branch with a bit of webbing on the leaves. The smaller male was tugging at the lines of silk, presumably to send a message of his intent to the larger female. Spiders often use this type of cue when courting, which varies from web-tugging to dancing and leg waving, depending on the species. The main benefits are establishing that the desired partner is willing to mate, and is of the same species, because each species tends to have a distinctive mating ritual.

In this case, the female was initially facing away from the male, but after some persistent signaling, turned around and spread her front legs, allowing the male to approach. As you can see in the photos, the male spider (on the right) has pedipalps full of sperm. Pedipalps are leg-like appendages in the front of the body, and the tips of the “loaded” pedipalps look like small red balls. The goal for the male is to inject his sperm from his pedipalps into the epigyne of the female, which is located on the underside of her abdomen.

It was a difficult thing to photograph, particularly due to the extreme heat, with just enough breeze to blow the branch in and out of focus, but not enough to cool down the photographer. Immediately after what I believe was a successful coupling, the male disappeared.

Even when there are no turtle tracks, the trip to look for them can be very enjoyable!

On yet another hot and sticky day I went on a short walk in the Grand Case area. My first stop was the bridge, where the canal to the airport salt pond had been opened recently. Several royal terns were happily fishing there and I was happy to stop and take a few photos of them.

As I continued through town I ran into a couple friends, one of which pointed out a cherry bush on the hill and asked me to bring some back if I went up that way. A cherry bush is actually a cashew tree, and the cashews themselves actually hang from the bottom of what looks like a vaguely heart-shaped fruit. Actually, apparently the cashew itself is the fruit, and the fruit-like part is a pseudo-fruit. Unprepared, the cashew is actually poisonous, but the pseudo-fruit is sweet and delicious. The tree itself was popular with a particular cerambycid (longhorn) beetle, Trachyderes succinctus and what seems to be a braconid wasp. There were also a number of fruit flies and small beetles eating the fallen fruit.

I stopped to take a couple photos of Grand Case before returning with my cherry fruit, sweaty but well-rewarded.

In La Grotte du Puits des Terres Basses, there are a number of solution cavities in the ceiling. These are hemispherical depressions created when water dissolves the rock. They seem to be a popular site for maternity colonies, where mother bats raise their young. In some of the photos below, you can see some of the young bats, still mostly hairless (chauves-souris qui sont vraiment chauve). The bats seem to be Brachyphylla cavernarum. In addition, particularly on the baby bats, insect parasites can clearly be seen. Also featured are some of the various invertebrates found in the cave, including cave crickets, the giant centipede, spiders and snails.

The wildlife guide will have a table at the St. Martin Book Fair events Thursday evening in Marigot and Saturday in Philipsburg. Stop by and get your book signed or pick up a copy!

St Martin Book Fair

Last week we had the privilege of joining some friends on their boat for the day, including a snorkel at Baie Longue near the end of the beach by Cupecoy. The sea floor in the area is predominantly sandy, with few rocks to provide a substrate for corals or a habitat for fish, but the water is often crystal clear. As you can see below, there was a large school of palometa which settled in beneath the boat as soon as we dropped anchor.

Although it’s fun to see a large school of fish, they are almost certainly there because they are fed, probably by boats who stop there to let their passengers snorkel. This is, of course, generally seen as a bad idea because it changes the behavior of the fish. In some cases, for example, fish may eat less of their normal food, thereby failing to fulfill their role in the local ecosystem. It also makes them more vulnerable to fishing, which for the palometa may be bad for those who eat them. Palometa that normally travel between the open ocean and the shallows may be more likely to develop higher levels of ciguatera toxin if they learn to stay in the shallows.

Anyhow, the snorkel was quite fun, and I was also able to find a peacock flounder and many juvenile grunts near a small patch of rock, as well as a young southern stingray.

Last week several of my attempts to survey for sea turtle tracks were thwarted by rain, but finally I did get a day that was merely intermittently drizzly and made the trek out. Although again there were no tracks, it was a good chance to see the island while it was damp. At the small pond near the school in Cul de Sac frogs, snails and flatworms were out and about. There were also plenty of spiders and insects hoping to catch a few rays of sun.

Here are a couple more sets of photos rounding out my afternoon in Pointe Blanche. There were some peacocks and guinea hens at the little farm above Geneve Bay, and there were hundreds of tadpoles in a spot where rainwater had collected on the road. Included in the photos are a deformed moth and I spider I found in a fallen epiphyte.

There were also some great views to be had in the area, particularly from the communications towers that overlook Philipsburg and Great Bay. I also noticed that the prison has a terrific view of St. Barths, although I’m not sure the prisoners can see it over the walls of the prison. Overall, it’s definitely the perfect place to explore if you’re in Philipsburg. Also, there’s tons of monkey poop in the area, which I guess means monkeys.