It's giant earwigs versus aircraft on remote St Helena
November 27, 2005 Edition 1
Marie Woolf
The giant earwig is among the most elusive creatures on the planet - and is believed by many to be extinct. But its survival is at the centre of a transatlantic planning row that could prevent an airport being built on the island where Napoleon Bonaparte spent his final years in exile.
Some of the world's rarest species, including birds, spiders and centipedes, are under threat from a new £80 million (about R930 million) airport planned for the island of St Helena.
Biologists and environmentalists are warning that some of the world's last undiscovered creatures may be lost to science forever if their habitat is covered in tarmac by the British government.
The South Atlantic island is home to spiders so rare they have not even been named, beetles that were unknown to man until two years ago and birds found only in the remote island's habitat.
Conservationists who compare its importance to the Galapagos Islands warn that the massive construction project could wipe out some of these rare creatures and ensure that as yet undiscovered insects are never found by man.
"This looks like the worst sort of unsustainable development," said Norman Baker, the Liberal Democrat environment spokesperson, who has questioned ministers in Britain's house of commons about the scheme. "The government should be considering how to preserve the biodiversity of the island instead of rushing headlong with an airport."
The arid site earmarked for the air strip and terminal is the breeding ground of the indigenous wire bird - of which only about 400 exist in the wild - as well as endangered lurking wolf spiders, and large black Darkling beetles.
The 78mm-long giant earwig also made its home in Prosperous Bay Plain. A live giant earwig has not been seen since the late 1960s but while some conservationists fear it is extinct, others hope a few still exist and are planning expeditions later this year and in 2006 to try to locate them.
Dr Richard Grove, the research director the centre for world environmental history at Sussex University, and a fellow of Clare College, Cambridge, is among those who believe it may still be found. But he says its chances will be severely reduced by the new airport.
"This is the equivalent of the Galapagos and in some ways it is more important as it has the potential for more undiscovered species," he said. "Island species like the giant earwig are often declared to be extinct because of a lot of naturalists are not there. Then they are found later."
The British foreign office and the St Helena government commissioned Philip and Myrtle Ashmole, experts on the island's insect life, to carry out a zoological survey of the area where the airport is planned. They found that it contained around 20 species not known anywhere else on the globe.
"Prosperous Bay Plain has at least 20 species of invertebrates endemic to the plain, not just St Helena," Philip Ashmole said.
"During our survey we found a couple of wolf spiders that are almost certainly new to science. It is ironic and unfortunate that the only feasible place to put an airport on St Helena happens to be so important for invertebrates that are known nowhere else on the planet." The British government, which is responsible for St Helena, believes an airport will bring in tourists, and open up the island - now accessible only by boat - to development and trade. - Foreign Service
