S. Mahunka szerk.: Folia Entomologica Hungarica 33/2. (Budapest, 1980)
14 08' -13 42' . Its eastern shores are washed by the Atlantic Ocean, the western by the Caribbean Sea. Its area is 616 km 2 inhabited by 120,000 people, divided into 11 districts with Castries its capital of 42,000 inhabitants. The island is volcanic in origin with some coral limestone. The island is guttiform elongate in N-S direction, its axially running mountains are in fact functioning as watershed dividing the island into an Atlantic and a Caribbean part. The former is somewhat broader, cooler and drier, the Caribbean part being warmer and moister clearly reflected by the difference in vegetation top. Geomorphologically it is à rich area, the lowlands are scarce, while the mountains are rugged (higher points: Mt. Gimie - 935 m, Mt. Grand Magazine - 645 m, Piton Flore - 571 m, and the two cones emerging directly from the sea: Petit Plton - 750 m and Gros Piton - 799 m) and difficult to pass. Originally the island was covered by tropical rain-forest, however, its area diminished significantly owing to heavy deforestations and felling, and today found mostly inland in the higher regions. These remnants are today nature reservations. The shore-line and lowland areas and other basin-type flatlands are agriculturally cultivated (banana, cocoanut, mango and various vegetables), many hills are covered by scrub or degraded secondary forests. We departed from Geneva on the 7th of July, 1980. Our lodging was close to the capital that proved to be rather fortunate considering mainly the communication and also the organization of collecting trips, since the Caribbean side of the island (moister,warmer, less degraded) is far more interesting than the other. Unfortunately, travelling on the island proved to be rather cumbersome due partly to uncertain communication between the settlements (poor organization) and partly to the high charges in hired cars or taxis. Nevertheless, we had to rely upon this latter convenience since our logdlngs were at a fixed place and had only a rather short period of time to spare. Since the island is not large our soil zoological collectings, though not with the same intensity at each place, covered the best part of the island. Besides our special method of collecting we also used in collecting other groups of animals the half automatic apparatuses: Berlese-, Moczarski —Winkler-apparatus (see schematic map). Collectings were made in the following^ main habitats: 1. Sea-shore: The shore-line is varied - rocky and sandy flats alternate. A rocky part generally means sheer cliffs, the vegetation of which Is scrub-forest, while the sandy flat shores were belted with cocoanut palms admixed with leather-leaved sedge. Marine animals were not collected except the molluscs of the tidal zone. Successful collectings were made by using the sweeping net over the. offshore bars, by beating the nearby vegetation and by pealing off barks. In the evenings the light-attracted animals were also secured in this belt. 2. The secondary forests of the coastal mountains on the Caribbean side: The coastal, rocky and frequently very steep areas suffered heavily by clearings bringing erosion, consequently the originally thin surface soil became much degraded which made reforestation impossible. On the other hand, now the lands are likewise unsuitable for agricultural cultivation, so a wild, low-statured, very thick scrub developed, while in the more protected parts closed liana forest luxuriates. These regions were approached from the capital mainly on foot, also the environs of Gros Islet and Anse La Raye were visited. 3. The inland with mountainous rain-forests: The habit of the forests here much resembles that of Mt. Yungas without the luxurious moss vegetation. In the more open, rocky parts primarily the low fern carpets were over'shelming. More important collectings were made in the environs of Piton Flore as well as of Petit and Gros Piton, though here too we were able to concentrate mainly on the soil fauna. 4. The southern and. Atlantic coastal dry scrub and pastures: The vegetation is influehced by the generally strong wind blowing from the ocean bringing about malformed growth clearly showing the direction of the wind. The unfilled areas are covered by prickly, impenetrable scrub; grazing is frequent here. Besides the soil samples we collected coprophagous material here. Our collectings were mainly aimed at securing soil zoological material which is readily reflected by our collecting methods: a. Soil, moss litter, etc. samples, extracted in the Be r le se-funnels . b. Litter, detritus, moss, etc. sifted, extracted in the Moczarski-Winkler bags. c. Soil traps with ethyleneglycol, partly baited with meat or excrement. d. Soil, litter, moss, water, etc. samples for nematodes. e. Soil, litter, moss, etc. samples for water-bears (Tardigrada). f. Yellow pan-trap. g. Beating the foliage of trees and bushes. h. Netting the grass vegetation.
