|
May 24, 2008
bron The Daily Herald
Four American scientists are on Saba for 10 days to complete the first round
of an insect inventory sponsored by Conservation International to create a database
of Caribbean biodiversity. The entomologists are all specialists.
David Wagner of University of Connecticut is looking for moths and butterfl ies and
Piotr Naskrecki from Conservation International works on grasshoppers and katydids.
Returning Derek Sikes of the University of Alaska Museum (who was on the first
expedition last March) is an expert in beetles as is Michael Ivie from Montana State
University. Ivie created and is in charge of the "West Indian Beetle Fauna Project"
since 1978, and his University now has the world's largest collection of West Indian
beetles.
Ivie said that his Saba tour brings to 40 the number of Caribbean islands
he has visited. So far, the inventory has already greatly increased the knowledge of
the types of beetles that live on Saba. The current literature records only 11
species in two families, whereas the two beetle specialists have already collected
more than 100 species from 25 families, and expect to double the number of species
by the end of the expedition next week. The team said that given the number of
insects they are fi nding they could say that the health of the island's environment
is strong.
The scientists are also interested in discovering an endemic insect
species on Saba. Ivie, with his vast Caribbean experience, said that he has never
seen an island without an endemic insect species. Insects are much more difficult
to identify than plants, and much of the taxonomy work will take place at the
various institutions the participants come from or will be sent to the appropriate
expert elsewhere. Naskrecki said that the end result would be a virtual museum on
the Internet similar to the Virtual Museum of the Plants and Lichens of Saba created
by The New York Botanical Garden team last year. Many of the team's expeditions were
along Saba trails, since the areas immediately off the trails provide a rich harvest
of insects. Ivie said that this is called the "edge effect" and because the ground
is dryer, more trashy, and invasive, it is usually a rich environment for
collecting.
The group also set up a 175-watt mercury vapour light behind the Cottage
Club where they are staying. The light attracts insects to a white, vertical sheet
and the scientists can easily pluck them off. One evening they set a similar trap at
the end of the Mountain Road, using a generator and an ultraviolet lamp.
 Back to community news page.
|
