Notes from Underground-collectingrpts

COLLECTING TRIP TO GUANA ISLAND, OCT. 2002
by Roy R. Snelling

     Although the British Virgin Islands are a favorite vacation spot for the more savvy Caribbean visitors, they are generally poorly known to biologists.
     Most Americans are unaware that there are Virgin Islands other than the American Virgin Islands, esp. St. John, St. Thomas, and St. Croix. Lying just above the American VI are the British Virgin Islands (BVI).
     The largest of these is Tortola; other islands in the group include Jost Van Dyke, Virgin Gorda, Anegada, the Camanoes, and Guana, as well as a host of smaller islands and islets.
     Guana Island, at 850 acres, is the largest privately owned island in the BVI and certainly one of the most appealing. The owners of the island, Dr. Henry Jarecki and his wife Gloria, have built a small hotel

Sunset looking NNW to Long Man's Point, from my balcony.

on a ridge affording a fine view of the surrounding area; many of the rooms have excellent views, including those from the balcony of my room (figures). Most of the island is little-disturbed subtropical dry forest, a nature preserve and wildlife sanctuary.
The month of October has been set aside by the Jarecki's as "scientist month". Each year a selected few biologists visit the island, staying at the hotel and devoting themselves to studying the flora and fauna of the BVI, especially of Guana Island. I have been there on several previous trips and have published a couple

of papers on some of the wasps collected there, including the description of the spectacular spider wasp, Psorthaspis gloria (Photo Right). As a result of these prior visits in the early 1990s, I collected a total of 33 ant species, 27 of which are native there. Since I did not have access to Winkler funnels then, my sampling of the litter fauna was limited.
On this most recent visit I kept 4 Winklers very busy. As a result, I added to my list for Guana 11 species and 5 additional genera. One of the species is invasive (Tetramorium bicarinatum). Two species are new: an Amblyopone related to A. falcatum of Puerto Rico and a Leptothorax unlike any previously described "Macromischa". A third species, a Pheidole similar to P. moerens, was collected the bromeliad, Tillandsia utriculata; only a few workers were found and, while it appears

Vegetation of Long Man's Point, the most xeric site on the Island

to be distinct, majors must be collected to settle its status.
One day was given over to a visit to Sage Mountain National Park on Tortola, a small patch of genuine rainforest. The collecting there yielded some strange results. In the litter I got only a single dacetine species, Pyramica eggersi and NO Hypoponera. Since both groups are common, often dominant, elements in tropical leaf litter, their scarcity at Sage Mountain is puzzling. Otherwise, the litter samples produced the usual suspects: Anochetus, Pachycondyla, Platythyrea, Cyphomyrmex, Pheidole, Solenopsis, Wasmannia, Brachymyrmex, and Paratrechina.

Another one-day (more like a few hours) trip was made to Norman Island, about 18 miles as the sea gull flies, due south of Guana. This island is the one made famous by Robert Louis Stevenson as "Treasure Island". The results were disappointing: few ants and certainly no treasure. On the other hand, like Guana, there are likely some formicid treasures to be had if one had to time to properly survey the island.
All in all, October was a very good month!