Shells: West Indian Topsnail (Cittarium pica)

Marine gastropods often lead a mysterious life outside of the direct eye of humankind, except maybe for some close observing divers and snorkelers that occasionally find these species in the sea. The Kiwa is one of them!

Honeybees on Curaçao (with notes on other islands of the former Netherlands Antilles) (1)

Abeha—bees; they appear in the local news all too often, usually in a negative light following an attack with serious consequences for animals or humans. Such reporting often lacks nuance, paying little attention to the bee species itself—the root cause of the news stories—or the reasons why attacks occur in the first place. This is the first article on this series telling the story of the introduction of honeybees on the ABCSSS0islands.

Moth species: Black witch moth (Ascalapha odorata)

Every year, there are certain animal species that trigger a cloud of reactions on social media. The Black Witch Moth is one of them.

Tiny critters: Orange longhorn beetle (Oxymerus aculeatus)

The Orange longhorn beetle is not officially called that; no popular name has been designated for these animals yet, but we do know that the scientific name is Oxymerus aculeatus, a species belonging to the family Cerambycidae (longhorn beetles).

Wild flowers: Palu di Dushi kabei (Maclura tinctoria)

Many of the local fruits that were once popular are now hardly known. An example of such a forgotten plant is the Dushi kabei also called Palu di mora or Palu dushi di kabei.

Fish: Sharptail Snake-Eel (Myrichthys breviceps)

Various species of moray eels can be found in the waters of the ABC islands. Moray eels belong to the group of fish and not snakes, as many people think.

Wild flowers: Wayaca (Guaiacum officinale)

The popular and striking native local tree Guaiacum officinale has, in addition to its scientific name, several other names that vary from island to island and from location to location on the ABC-islands

Leucism 2: a leucistic Rufous-collared sparrow

A few weeks ago, we wrote about the subject of leucism. Photographer Tom Lacroix recently found a leucistic Rufous-collared sparrow on Curaçao.

Shells: Amber Pen Shell (Pinna carnea)

When walking along the shores of our islands we you can sometime find delicate pink wing-shaped bivalve shelves of varying sizes that look and feel like they are made of the most fragile of materials.

Wild flowers: Buttonwood (Conocarpus erectus)

This post is also available in: Dutch (below) The Buttonwood is a tree species that has become part of the landscaping in various neighbourhoods on all three islands of Aruba,…

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