Navassa island, an unincorporated territory of the US, is a small, uninhabited island in the Caribbean sea, between Cuba, Haiti and Jamaica. Although unpopulated by people, it is populated by reptiles, insects, arthropods and fish.
Navassa Island Reptiles
Reptiles unique to the island include the Navassa anole, Cochran's croaking gecko, the Navassa dwarf gecko and the Navassa
galliwasp. The Navassa Curly-tailed Lizard, now unfortunately extinct, was also unique to Navassa Island. There are two other extinct endemic reptiles sometimes considered full species; the Navassa Iguana and the Navassa Dwarf Boa.
Navassa Island Invertebrates
Survey collections of invertebrates on Navassa island recorded and documented 650 species, which featured a stunning 500 new insects, with a possible 30 percent being endemic to the island. Nearly 100 arthropods, which are mostly spiders, made up the rest of the discovered and listed species. Of these 100 arthropods, there were cataloged 40 new species of spider.
Invertebrates which have been found exclusively on Navassa Island include a may beetle
phyllophaga navassa, a longhorned beetle,
plectromerus navassae, a millipede
macroxenodes navassaensis, a wall crab spider
selenops trifidus, a shorttailed whipscorpion
rowlandius steineri, a tanaid crustacean
Saltipedis navassensis, and an isopod crustacean,
Stenetrium kensleyi.
Navassa Island Fish
Marine fish discovered only at Navassa Island include the
Flagfin stargazer Gillellus inescatus, a goby
Evermannichthys bicolor and the
Whitesaddle Blenny Starksia leucovitta. A third fish discovered at Navassa Island is the ribbon blenny
emblemaria vitta, whose name is based on the Latin noun
vitta, meaning "band" referring to the ribbon-like shape of the orbital cirri, which also gives it its common name. Another blenny discovered at Navassa Island is
Acanthemblemaria harpeza. Its name derives from the Greek noun
harpeza meaning thorn-hedge, which refers to the branched nasal and orbital cirri that are bush-like with thorn spines on the head, and thus given the common name, thornbush blenny.'
Navassa National Wildlife Refuge
The US Geological Survey had two science expeditions to Navassa Island in 1998 and 1999, organized by the Center for Marine Conservation. These expeditions conducted an inventory of the natural resources. Because of the wealth of flora and fauna collected during these expeditions, Navassa Island was declared a National Wildlife Refuge in 1999.