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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!