|
March 14, 2008
bron The Daily Herald
Three insect specialists - entomologists - are spending the week on Saba
looking for ants, spiders, and beetles. This latest study to be sponsored by
Conservation International (CI) will be the fi rst comprehensive listing of these
insect species on Saba.
The work is being conducted by Derek Sikes, Curator of the
University of Alaska Museum, Gary D. Alpert from the Harvard Museum of Comparative
Zoology, and Joey Slowik, research associate from the Denver Museum of Nature and
Science. CI has recognised the Caribbean as a "hot spot" because of its tremendous
biodiversity, which is underdocumented and at risk.
Nearly three-quarters of the
world's most threat- and mammals and over half of all the world's plants live in
just a tiny fraction of the earth's surface - the biodiversity hotspots. CI
previously sponsored a biodiversity study of the Saba Bank, an inventory of Saba's
flora, and now the current insect stud With the support of Saba Conservation
Foundation, the three scientists are collecting their specimens from various spots
on the island.
During the day, Sikes and Slowik collect species by holding a
"beating sheet" under a tree and then beat the branches to dislodge insects into the
sheet. The sheet is a piece of white cloth stretched on a square frame. After
discarding the larger pieces of debris, they can separate out the sometimes
minuscule insects, which are put into a small glass vial with alcohol. Alpert
pointed to a tiny ant small enough to go through the eye of a sewing needle. They
will also be collecting at night. Beetle expert Sikes said that beetles are actually
the biggest family of life on earth, with 60,000 species, making one out of every
four animals is a beetle. Over 2,000 new species are found every year and there are
over two million beetles yet to be described. Sikes is anxious to see whether he
will discover a new beetle species during the Saba expedition.
 Back to community news page.
|
