If the book launch was going to be held in a cave, Jamaican fruit bats would surely bring all their friends. Of course, it’s not being held in a cave, it will be at the Jubilee Library in Philipsburg, one week from today (Tuesday, July 23rd, 6-8pm). The event is free and open to everyone, so please invite your friends […]

Yesterday evening, a little after dark, I noticed something small crossing the street in front of me. It turns out, it was a mole cricket, the second time I’ve seen one on St. Martin. These crickets are nocturnal, and spend most of their time underground, so it isn’t so surprising that I don’t see them often. This one is a […]

I got a great suggestion about yesterday’s mystery insect, that it is a thrips. Thrips are small insects from the order Thysanoptera, and the ones I see the most on St. Martin live on ficus leaves. In fact, if you see a ficus with leaves that are folded shut, open the leaf and you will usually find something resembling the […]

You win some and you lose some. I had some time to kill in Marigot yesterday, so I figured what better way to spend it than shooting photos of wildlife in the middle of Marigot. In most ways, it isn’t the ideal place to find wildlife, but on the other hand, I often find interesting insects when I am limited […]

Even after over three years of poking around the island looking for wildlife, I still find new animals all the time. This little guy was on a bush in the front yard of a house two doors down from my apartment. It’s very tiny, much smaller than a grain of rice. In fact, I wasn’t even sure if it was […]

… or is it the ugly duckling? I posted some photos of tortoise beetle larvae, pupae and adults a couple months ago. Right now, they’re back on the very same tree, although the adult I saw today was very different looking than the last one, although it may still be the same species. The most recent find is the sparkly […]

Ground lizards love being warm. They bask in the sun to absorb heat through their backs, and they also leave their bellies on the ground to absorb heat from below. There are many species from this genus in the Lesser Antilles, often one for every island or group of nearby islands. Our species is found on Anguilla, St. Barts and […]

The official launch of the all-new second edition of The Incomplete Guide to the Wildlife of St. Martin is happening in just two weeks at the Jubilee Library in Philipsburg. The new book is pretty fantastic and only $20. Skip Lazell, who has studied Caribbean biology and ecology for fifty years, has called it “the best, and most complete, natural […]

Ants often tend and defend scale insects, which excrete sugar-right liquids that are derived from the plant juices that they drink. In some cases the ants will even move young scale insects, an interesting way for a relatively immobile animal to get around. In this case, the scale insects and ants are seen inside the seed pod of a plant.

Black-necked stilt chicks can run, but they prefer to hide. Although they are able to walk around within a day of hatching, their primary defense mechanism is camouflage. Here you can see a few chicks on the airport salt pond in Grand Case doing their best to avoid being noticed. I assume that the rock wall in the pond was […]