This morning we got Fidel to take us round to the Paradisus Hotel with his horse and carriage and went for a walk around the edge of the forest there. Sad to see that the hotel continues to carry on dumping in the countryside any waste from renovations that it does. Needless to say they aren’t meant to do this but it doesn’t seem to stop them – and all within 400m of the hotel. It was good to find a larva of Gold-spotted Aguna Aguna asander here on the same Bauhinia bush where I have found them before. This is the only Bauhinia that we know of in the area though I suspect there may be more in the hotel grounds. There is second Aguna species on Cuba, Emerald Aguna Aguna claxon but that was first seen in the far west of the island at Guanahacabibes in 1962 presumably as a recent colonist from Mexico and although it has since been found near Zapata in Matanzas Province I don’t know how much further east it has spread, so we will keep looking. Its larvae too feed on Bauhinia which is widespread so it is perhaps surprising that it spreading so slowly. There is a parallel here with the two Dynamine species. Caribbean Sailor Dynamine serina is widespread in Cuba whereas Mexican Sailor Dynamine postverta was at one time found just in the far west. It has in recent years made a rapid expansion to the east and in the last couple of days we have had brief views of them here near the hotel. Today however we saw only a Caribbean Sailor Dynamine serina. And this proved to be one of only two sightings of it during this trip.
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