When James Wetterer docked in the Cayman Islands during his Caribbean cruise holiday in April he set off to see the sights, but he did not head to Seven Mile Beach or Stingray City. Instead, the professor at Florida’s Atlantic University headed for the nearest patch of red mangroves to continue his research, where he stumbled upon a unique species of ant that has never been identified before.
Wetterer tells the story of his discovery in this month’s edition of Flicker, the bi-monthly magazine produced by the Terrestrial Research Unit of the Department of Environment (DoE).
Wetterer had been working on the insects living in the dead hollow twigs in mangrove areas of Florida and had discovered that rare ant species were often found in red mangroves because of their unique habitat, often completely isolated by water from dry land. During his Cayman visit he collected a few specimens from the mangroves he managed to find around the Camana Bay area, and when he cut open the twigs he found an ant he had never seen before.read more
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