This is the Bearded Anole, Anolis pogus, which is found only on St. Martin. I have an amusing story of how this anole got its beard. The biologist Skip Lazell was in St. Martin in 1963 and 1966 as a graduate student, studying and collecting these lizards. Shortly afterwards, he described it as a new subspecies (later it became its […]
Volunteering to survey a beach for sea turtle tracks and nests is a great excuse to get out to a beach early in the morning once a week. Even if I don’t see turtle tracks, I inevitably see something. Yesterday it was this osprey. It’s not unusual to see them, particularly during the winter, but they aren’t common, either. I’m […]
I posted a strange-looking insect larva a few days ago, thinking it could be a sawfly larva. Since then it has pupated, and I have to revise my opinion because the pupa looks like it will be some kind of beetle. Or perhaps a model for a terrifying creature in an upcoming alien movie. With over a million known species, […]
In this photo, things are pretty crowded. It is a maternity colony of Lesser Antillean Fruit Bats, as seen in the Grotte du Puits de Terres Basses in the Lowlands. In this cave, maternity colonies can be seen seasonally in the round depressions in the ceiling of the cave. I believe these depressions are caused naturally by erosion from water […]
Along the trail that leads from Cul-de-sac to Anse Marcel, you can often see American Kestrels sitting on the rocks or columnar cacti near Eastern Point. Their diet is mostly grasshoppers and lizards, and the grassy area near the point is a great place for them to spot potential prey. To take a photo like this one, find a kestrel […]
I believe this is a sawfly larva. They usually look and act like caterpillars, although this one looks like a really ugly caterpillar. In fact, they are wasps. Their ancestors may be one of the most primitive groups of wasps, which later gave rise to many of the bees, wasps and ants of today. A big thank you to our […]
The house gecko is native to Africa, but is now found in almost all the warm parts of the Americas, including the Caribbean. It is generally assumed that they were inadvertently introduced to the Americas by people, but it is also possible that came by natural means. They definitely seem to benefit from the presence of humans, in particular artificial […]
I’m not exactly sure what’s going on in this photo, but I bet it is interesting. The scene is an apple of sodom seed pod (apple of sodom is basically a big milkweed plant). It’s covered in oleander aphids, but there are also two wasps. On St. Martin, there is a different wasp that parasitizes oleander aphids, laying an egg […]
How many spiders are named after St. Martin? At least one! This wall crab spider was described as a new species based on specimens from St. Martin, and named Selenops souliga. Souliga (also spelled many other ways) is the Arawak name for St. Martin, and means land of salt. (Apparently a Father Breton actually recorded four Arawak names for St. […]
Many insects don’t take care of their young. Butterflies will lay eggs on the type of plant their caterpillars eat, but other than that, the caterpillars are on their own. The torrid jewel bug actually does provide parental support, by protecting first the eggs, and then the young nymphs, as you can see here. Speaking of support, I want to […]