Ed O. Colijn

In January and February 2009 the third and fourth authors visited
Saba to sample the invertebrate fauna of tank bromeliads. They also
collected a small number of beetles during visits to the island in
October 2008 and October 2009. The second author paid a visit to Saba
in December 2019 and January 2020 to study red-billed tropicbirds.
During this stay he also collected several beetles and other invertebrates.
The two small beetle collections were identified by the first author.
Two specimens were identified to subfamily level, three to genus
level, two provisionally and fifteen to species level. Fourteen of the
taxa identified to genus or species level are new to Saba or constitute
confirmations of earlier provisional records for the island, four of these
are even new to the Dutch Antilles.
 

In February and March 2020 the second author visited St. Eustatius to
collect various insect groups. The beetles collected during this trip were
identified by the first author. Forty-six species could be identified to genus
or species level. Twenty-one of these were new for the island and 15 even
for the Dutch Antilles. This research brings the number of beetle species
currently known to occur on St. Eustatius to 117, which is about a quarter
of the number of species expected to be present on the island. There still
remains a lot to be discovered