THEY are not the favorite of many and to be honest, their encounter is usually met with shrieks, scorn and disgust, but our invertebrates are very special.
Except for a few exceptions, the invertebrate fauna of the Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park has yet to be fully explored. While there have been a total of 561 species of land snails identified on the island - 505 of which are endemic - there are more than 100 undescribed species of snails, millipedes, grasshoppers, earthworms, crabs, isopods and dipluran insects.
Similar to snails, Jamaica’s moth fauna is extremely diverse with over 1,000 species. About 500 of these species have been collected by Entomologist, Matthew Barnes at a single location in the southern Blue Mountain near Mavis Bank in the Hope River watershed. Moths have never enjoyed a positive connotation in the island’s heritage. They have been associated with bad omen and culturally thought to be the representation of the dead. One can only imagine the childhood fear that persists in the Mavis Bank environs today.
Love them or hate them, Jamaica boasts some 23 species of native frogs all of which are endemic to the island. Frogs are the only amphibians native to Jamaica and the BJCMNP is home to 11 of the 23 species. Five of these frogs are endemic to the park and the remaining species can be found in the island’s other major distribution centre– the Cockpit Country.
The BJCMNP is also home to a wide variety of insects belonging to a wide range of families. Peenywallies, click beetles, blinkies, and fireflies are only a few. Dragonflies, Caddisflies and Mayflies are common along rivers and streams and their larvae are the main macro-invertebrates counted in the national park’s fresh-water sources.
Creepy, Crawlies...
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