Journal of The Trinidad and Tobago Field Naturalists' Club 1995-1996 Natura Maxime Miranda in Minimis Published July 1996 UVING WORLD is a published biennially by the Trinidad and Tobago Field Naturalists' Club. All rights reserved. Typesetting by Detta Buch, design and mechanical art by Ichris Industries, 63 School St, Carenage, Republic of Trinidad & Tobago. living World Journal of the Trinidad &. Tobago Field Naturalists' Club 1995-1996 EC:litorial Contents There were eight founders of the Freidric William Urich rinldad Field Naturalists' Club in Fr.Anthony de Verteuil C.S.Sp. ...................................3 1891, and biographies of five of the Forest Decline in Trinidad & Tobago I~ ere published in the centenary issu Paul L.Comeau .......................................6 of 1991-1992. This issue includes on The Revegetation of the McClean Monument ~f F.W. Urich, the last of the well Victor Quesnel, T.Frankie Farrell, Anne Hilton, John Hilton and Luisa Zuniaga •.•9 iknown founders. The remaining IW Back to Landscaping... and in style! left no published material and facts Dennis Nardin .......................................13 rabout their lives are so scant that more Guanapo Cave bea.ch will have to be done before we Joannah P.E.C.Darlington .......•.........................15 publish anything worthwhile. Fr d Some Recent Reptilian Introductions to Trinidad trteuil's account of the life of Uricli Hans E.A. Boos .................•................... .17 ~ as published in his book "The Noteworthy Bird Records for Trinidad & Tobago, 1993-1994 nnans in Trinidad" (1994) jUld he floyd E. Hayes .............•.........................20 ! ciously gave us permission t Distributional Ecology of Selected Ebstract what we wanted from lhis pnbJ Plants and Animals on Trinidad!s 1ication. We thank him sincerely. Five Islands Archipelago In the early years of the club there Stanley A. Temple ............... .......... ... .......22 probably no talk of conservation The Skipper Butterflies because at that time there was DO obvl (Hesperiidae) of Trinidad iFs need for iL Now the need should Part 8, Genera group E (second section) !obvious to everyone, even those In . Matthew J. W. Cock, •..•......•••••.••.•.••••••••••.•••27 iPIaces who can do something about I Life History Data for Three Tyrant Flycatchers !!'at prefer to remain inactive or ~ Victor C Quesnel ..... ........•......................38 ___ m~ Book Reviews 1979 journal (so labe1Ied incorrectly Birds of Trididad & Tobago: A Photographic Atlas· R. Barrow A Guide to Wild flowers of Trinidad & Tobago - E. Duncan _ ••••••••••••39 fl979-1980) we opened it to !tion matters and in the next issue ~ed the paper by Adams and ! The Trinidad & Tobago Field Naturalists' Club ~ntitled "What is an Endange~ The Trinidad & Tobago Field Naturalists' Club was founded on the 10th July, [Plant?" Now we pnblisb a packag~ 1891. Its name was changed to the present on in 1974. It was incorporated by an ~ pa)lCl$ on different aspects of oon Act of Parliament (ACf No.17 of 1991). The objects of the club are tobring rvstIon problem. Paul Comeau together persons interested in the study of natural history, the diffusion of knowl­ ~e reasons fo~ forest decline in edge thereof and the conservation of nature. ~dad and 'lbbago; the club's Botany Monthly lecture meetings are held at St. Mary's College on the second Thursday P descn'bes their study of revegeta­ of every month while field excursions are held on the last Sunday of each month, jIion in an abandoned quarry, and DeniSj except December. \Nardin, the fOllDer Ambassador 0 Membership is open to all persons of at least fifteen years of age, who suscribe to France to this country (who was the objects of the club. ~e and valued member of the club~ ~es an account of the conservati'1 Management Committee - 1996 ~.fforts in the built-up areas of France. I President. ............. ............... ........ Ewoud Heestennan t a warning about what we may be Vice President ..................................... Paul Christopher ling in the next 20-30 years. Honorary Secretary ............................ Rosemary Hernandez The remaining articles require n . Honorary Assistant Secetary ............................ Ruth Bharath special comment. Treasurer................ .......................... Selwyn Gomes Committee Members .... Dan Jaggemauth, Shachindra Tripathi, Paul Comeau V.C.Q. President, Tobago Branch .......................... .. .. David Rooks Editorial Committee ~ Editor ..... .... ...................... .•... .........Victor Quesnel ~ntCover: Typesetting ............................................Detta Buch 'Silhouette of Coole's Butterflies and a pot' Layout ...........................................Paul Christopher bit of Ann/is I'XIreIIIIIS. iJ'ic:tuITs of Ann/is Extrenuu by Hans Boos; All enquiries concerning the dub or its joumal shoukI be addressed to the Honornry IGraphics by Puul C/rrisropheT Secretary, P.O. Box 642, Port of Spain, Republic ofllinidad and Thbago Living World Journal of the Trinidad dt Tobago Field Naturalists' Club 1995·1996 2 Friedrick William Urich Fr.Anthony de Verteuil C.S.Sp. Spiritan House, Frederick St., Port of Spain According to an old tradition, the Jom their two uncles, Christian and waters of the bathtub. l\vo vampire bats Urich family originated in Switzerland .. Anselm Gerold, who ran a business in were kept in a cage in the yard. Large In 1888, Adolf christened his new home the capital, Port of Spain, and that later tarantulas (hopefully safely confined) at St. Ann's. just outside Port Of Spain, they might possibly go on to the United were fed regularly on cockroaches. Schweitzer House, that is Swiss House. States. Consulted about strange insects devour­ However, the records from Germany And so, aged twenty one, Friedrich ing the tomato plants, he found in them show that as early as 1606, the Urich Urich came out to Trinidad, to be fol­ subjects for delightful study and not family were established in a little prin­ lowed shortly after by his brother pests for destruction But his favourite cipality of Hesse, at first at the village Wilhelm, and his first cousin Adolf pet, which was often given the run of of Umbstadt and then a century later at Wuppermann. the yard, was a thick six-foot-Iong the town of Erbach. This was in "the Eventually, the Gerolds sent macajuel, named Cleo. On one occasion very heartland of the beautiful mountain Friedrich to Angostura (Cuidad Bolivar) while he was entertaining guests, most region of the Odenwald and the in Venezuela .... .!n 1834 Freidrich appalling screams were heard coming Vogelsberg, Hessen-Darmstadt and returned to Trinidad where he joined his from the maid in the yard. Urich rushed Oberhessen, - each little town with its uncles in the firm of Gerold and Urich. out and returned in a moment to the church; castle, framework houses with He returned to Germany to get married house, quite calmly announcing en pas­ pious sentences carved into beams, in 1841. In his diary he gives a full sant that it was only Cleo! - the maid flower cases on the windows." description of his proposal to Minchin had gone to the dimly lit toilet and once For some two centuries the Urichs Wilhemina Bauer... They had three sons in situ had discovered to her shock, that were tradesmen or technicians, - shoe­ and one daughter, Sophie, all born in Cleo was inspecting her from close makers, surveyors, - marrying among Trinidad. The family lived on proximity. their own social class, though in 1728 Abercromby Street. Their first child, Urich was a most congenial compan­ Johann F. Urich, then a shopkeeper, and Johann Frederick, born on the 4th July ion. In Snake Hunter's Holiday, by no doubt deeply pierced by Cupid's 1842, was Baptized at Trinity Cathedral Ditmars and Bridges, a description is shaft, married, perhaps just a little bit on the 7th October. When he was twen­ given of him and his house in 1930. below his level, a blacksmith's daughter. ty seven years old, in 1868, he married After 1750, his son, Johann Otto Urich, Marie Kernahan in St. Thomas. "About ten 0' clock we called on the is described as a Burgher, and Otto's The most notable of Frederick's chil­ professor. He lived behind a pink stucco son, Johann Balthazar Urich, born in dren was Friederick William, popularly wall and an iron grill gate in a tiny little 1777, became a land law actuary and known as 'Jangoons'. Born in 1872, he house that looked old-fashioned even married Caroline Gerold, the daughter was educated partly in Trinidad, partly for Port of Spain, where gingerbread of the Mayor of the nearby town. They in France and Germany (Cologne). He effects are much appreciated as addi­ were blessed with nine children, five married Marie Seheult and had one tions to architecture. We knocked and boys and four girls, and in spite of the child, Marie Louise (Liesel). His wife waited, knocked again and waited very difficult times consequent on the lived for years at Pau in the south of again , and presently an ancient Negress Napoleonic wars, they were all well France where their daughter was edu­ opened the door a crack and peered out. educated, one of them in fact, was to cated It was perhaps fortunate for her She promised to see if the professor was become a medical doctor. that she was not in Trinidad, for her at home and we stood in the sun and The outlook that was later to be husband was the quintessential scien­ mopped our faces until she returned and described as Bildung (Education) was tist. He had laboured for a short while in silently opened the door. Cecilia was a already in existence. It included a feel­ the civil service but his great work was master of English and patois and as deft ing for scholarship and art and for over­ as an entomologist and zoologist, and as at mixing rum punch as her master, we aU intellectual and moral striving. This a professor at the Imperial College of discovered later, but she never used admirable, solidly middle-class, Tropical Agriculture (the forerunner of words when a gesture would talk for Protestant ethic, the Urich's were to the University of the West Indies).