Quarterly Bulletin of the Trinidad and Tobago Field Naturalists’ Club April - June 2011 Issue No: 2/2011 Botany Field Trip Report, Sunday 27th March, 2011 Moruga Bouffe Report by Mike G. Rutherford Top centre on mount - Reg Potter on top of the biggest mount at Moruga Bouffe giving an animated talk about mud volcanoes to a captivated audience of field naturalists. (full article on page 13) photo: Eddison Baptiste Page 2 THE FIELD NATURALIST Issue No. 2/2011 Inside This Issue Quarterly Bulletin of the Trinidad and Tobago Field Naturalists’ Club Cover April - June 2011 Moruga Bouffe 1 Field Trip Report, 27th March 2011 Editors - Mike G. Rutherford Eddison Baptiste, Elisha Tikasingh (assistant editor) (full article on page 13) Editorial Committee Eddison Baptiste, Elisha Tikasingh, The Conflicted Nataurlist Palaash Narase, Reginald Potter 3 - Christopher k. Starr Contributing writers Christopher Starr, Elisha Tikasingh, Hans Boos, 4 Part 3. Black Flies Lester Doodnath, Mike Rutherford, Natasha Mohammed - Elisha S. Tikasingh Photographs Eddison Baptiste, Mike Rutherford, Natasha Mohammed 5 Monos Island - Lester W. Doodnath Design and Layout Eddison Baptiste - Natasha A. Mohammed - Christopher k. Starr The Trinidad and Tobago Field Naturalists’ Club is a 18 Book Notice non-profit, non-governmental organization - Christoper K. Starr Management Committee 2011 - 2012 We Go to Grenada 1975 Feature Serial (part 1b) President ……………... Eddison Baptiste 695-2264 19 - Hans Boos Vice-President ……….. Palaash Narase 751-3672 23 Management Notices Treasurer…………….. Selwyn Gomes 624-8017 Secretary ………...…... Bonnie Tyler 662-0686 24 Notes to Contributors Assist-Secretary ……... Paula Smith 729-8360 Committee members ... Ann M. Sankersingh 467-8744 Dan Jaggernauth 659-2795 Editor’s note Mike Rutherford 329-8401 Many thanks to all who contributed and assisted with articles and photographs. Contact us! CONTACT THE EDITOR Website: http://www.ttfnc.org Postal: The Secretary, TTFNC, c/o P.O. Box 642, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago Email: [email protected] Disclaimer: The views expressed in this bulletin are those of the respective Web Email Facebook Downloads authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion and views of the Trinidad and Tobago Field Naturalists’ Club Page 3 THE FIELD NATURALIST Issue No. 2/2011 THE CONFLICTED NATURALIST by Christopher K. Starr University of the West Indies [email protected] My house, like Victor Quesnel's, is a sort of Besides these, two social wasps nest inside from time wildlife sanctuary. Mosquitoes, non-native to time, and these and several others nest on the out- cockroaches and most termites are unwel- side of the house, along with mud-nesting solitary come, but just about everybody else is at least wasps, carpenter ants, stingless bees and the occa- tolerated. Three species of geckos (and the sional orchid bee. Although I have never seen either occasional skink) leave their, uh, leavings on of them inside the house, army ants raid across the the floor, a small price to pay for the pleasure patio a couple of times a year, and bachac columns of their squeaking, scurrying company. For a walk along the edge every night. time the house was home to a Cook's tree boa, whom I would encounter in unexpected On 6 April I awoke to notice three unaccustomed corners. The snake was quite a bit messier wasps clinging to the ceiling over my head. Now, that than the unamused lizards, but I was sure he was interesting, so I did exactly what you would do. I was worth it. picked up some plastic vials, collected the wasps, and then whipped out my hand lens. It was Agelaia mul- In some years house wrens nest inside. They are cer- tipicta. This widely-distributed maribon is far from tainly prejudicial to good housekeeping, but so what? common in Trinidad. I encounter a colony on aver- They are such delightfully lively little birds that one age less than once a year, so I was happy to get speci- can forgive them all manner of sins. mens right at home. A short-tailed fruit bat roosted in the bathroom for When I came home that evening I noticed several some months. The bat sometimes brought food more on the ceiling and flying about the lights. It items into the house, dropping the uneaten parts on struck me that there must be a new colony nearby. the floor, so that I was able to see what it was eating. Not exactly. It wasn't near the house but right inside (I believe Victor once did a study of the feeding habits it. The next morning I happened to look into the of bats roosting in his house.) My bat dropped a great spare bathroom and met a truly striking sight. There many pwa-bwa (Swartzia pinnata) seeds after chewing was a great mass of wasps hanging in clusters on the off the sweet white ariloid. This corroborated my far wall, spread over the ceiling and especially dense in hypothesis that pwa-bwa seeds are bat-dispersed. the angle between them, where they had already be- gun to build combs. Tarantulas and web-building spiders are certainly pre- sent. Every now and then I clean old, disused silk My immediate reaction was sharp delight. Hot damn! from the ceiling, trying not to damage or even incon- A real live Agelaia colony right there in my own venience the little eight-legged darlings. All arachnids house. And then, very quickly, I had misgivings. This are welcome in Obronikrom. and some other Agelaia species build huge colonies -- this founding swarm appeared to comprise several Many other beasts wander indoors for much shorter thousand individuals -- and they are not docile when periods. I get nocturnal maribons at the lights. disturbed. I have been stung by several species, and it Whacking big robust cockroaches fly in the windows, is always painful. A. multipicta (and possibly most skedaddle about and then depart. Moths often come members of the genus) have barbs on the stinger, so in, stay at rest through the day, and fly back out when that it remains fixed in the wound, where it keeps on night returns. (Continued on page 9) Page 4 THE FIELD NATURALIST Issue No. 2/2011 Annoying and Blood Sucking Arthropods of Trinidad and Tobago 3. Simulium Black Flies by Elisha S. Tikasingh [email protected] Black flies, Simulium, are sometimes mistakenly called sand flies probably because they are small, usually less than 5.0 mm in length. While many members of this group are black, there are others that are grey, yellow or orange. The antennae and legs of a black fly are short, the thorax is somewhat arched giving it a hump-backed look, and their wings are clear. These black flies are called buffalo gnats in the U.S.,cabouri or kabowra flies in Guyana, pium in Brazil and congo flies in Trinidad. Their bites are very painful and very more so than the sand flies. This is due to their mouth parts which contain blade-like lancets which macerate the skin at the bite site causing intense pain. The saliva introduced in the bites cause an allergic reaction with severe itching and swelling. ) Simulium Black Fly feeding on human arm Photo: Elisha Tikasingh Effects of Black Fly bites. Initial bite may be accompanied by a red spot (shown in circles) and later by local swelling. Photo: Elisha Tikasingh Black flies breed in fast running streams, creeks and rivers where the water is well aerated. They will not breed in Back Fly larva on vegetation. ponds and stagnant water. Eggs are deposited in masses Next to it is an empty pupal skin near rocks, aquatic vegetation and other objects in the Photo: Elisha Tikasingh water which the larvae cling to on hatching. (Continued on page 4 ) Page 5 THE FIELD NATURALIST Issue No. 2/2011 (Continued from page 3) The larvae undergo six moults and then spins a Staff of the Trinidad Regional Virus Laboratory have cocoon for pupal development. The pupa contains collected and identified seven species mainly from many filaments which are very diagnostic to the the rivers of the Northern Range (CAREC unpub- species level. lished data). Based mainly on adult morphology the following species were: Simulium clarki, S. metallicum, S. placidum, S. incrustatum, S. sp. near incrustatum, S. samboni and S. subnigrum). In Trinidad and Tobago, black flies are not known to carry any disease, but elsewhere such as north America in the spring and summer months they emerge in such large numbers that they annoy animals preventing them from feeding resulting in emaciation and sometimes they may even enter the nostrils of the animals suffocating them causing their deaths. In Guyana, they also emerge in large numbers during the rainy season so that people are reluctant to go in the interior and thus preventing development of the area. In West Africa, Central America and Venezuela species of Simulium carry a threadlike filarial worm, Onchocerca volvulus to people living near rivers. The adult worm live in subcutaneous nodules on the joints or trunk (Africa) and shoulders and head (Central America and Venezuela) from where they produce larvae called microfilariae which are released to other parts of the body. Some of the microfilariae may enter the eye causing blindness and the disease known as ―river blindness‖ or Back Fly cocoon stage onchocerciasis. When one sees pictures showing image found at: ―the blind leading the blind‖ the blindness in these ttp://www.bgsd.k12.wa.us/hml/jr_cam/ individuals is usually due to onchocerciasis. macros/upper_efl_f05/up_efl_f05a.html In Guyana and the Brazilian Amazon, Simulium The adults are difficult to identify and generally one species of the amazonicum group (now identified as must have the associated pupal skin for definitive S.