Dr James Wetterer is certain that his academic muse of two decades is not what most would consider to be spectacular or, for that matter, terribly important.

"Why ants?" he began, pre-empting his audience.

"I like ants. I think they're great. Besides, they are important ecologically," said the scientist. And he supported the thesis with a few fascinating facts.

Altogether, insects are heavier than the rest of the world's animals.

Ants make up more than one-third of the weight of all insects.

And ants alone are equal in weight to all us humans. "This is only," Wetterer added, "because people are now coming into their own."

It would be easy to pick Wetterer out as the ant enthusiast in a line-up. He shifts and shuffles, his socks visible through a pair of homely sandals. His sun-burned face is almost incidental to its frame of fiery hair. And with his slides and samples ready, the expert found no need to get dolled-up for the occasion. Not so for the dozen well-dressed attendees who had passed through a metal detector and allowed guards to pass slow-moving fingers through their purses at the public lecture hosted by the Fulbright Alumni Association and the Public Affairs Section of the US Embassy on Wednesday.

Wetterer is currently attached to the Biodiversity Centre of the University of the West Indies. As part of a project on the biodiversity of Caribbean, the United States Fulbright scholar is cataloguing the existing ant species of Trinidad and Tobago. Trinidad is a virtual ant's nest. Before his arrival, there were 189 types of ants recorded here. Already Wetterer's work has raised that number near to the 400 mark.

To what do we owe our abundance of ants? Wetterer explained that since our island was attached to South America (perhaps as recently as 1,500 years ago), our insect population is far more diverse than that of the rest of the region. Scientific names with ridiculous numbers of syllables slip out of Wetterer's mouth faster than you can say "biting insects". But he brought things home with references to the aliases we all recognise: the crazy ants, the bachacs, the army ants. Most of the resident species, however, do not yet have common names.

The lecture started with a hodgepodge of facts.

In New World tropical areas, ants (and not worms), are the most important agents for carrying nutrients into the soil. Ant colonies practise a tremendous division of labour, including the dispatch of specific sizes of ants depending upon the size of the food being harvested. Queens may live up to 25 years. The worker ants are all female. And sisters. The male ants all do their part for reproduction. Then die.

The truth be told, ants probably have not done that much to get our attention locally. They're doing a better job of it in other places. For example the little fire ant-a tiny orange breed that is native to Trinidad-is, get this: killing off vertebrates in some countries. In the Solomon Islands where Wetterer conducted research, the ant was incapacitating dogs and cattle, stinging them on their corneas and rendering them blind. Another scientist reported that the same was happening in Gabon with the leopards and elephants. In these environments the eco-system has no natural defences against or mutualisms with the ant, leading to population explosions.

Here, on the other hand, the ant co-exists with the mealy bug in the trunk of the bois cano tree. Several species of ants may live

together in the tree trunk up to a certain point when one type becomes dominant. The ants get access to the plant's food through the plant-sucking bug, which secretes a sugary liquid, rich in amino acids.

Wetterer warned that Trinidad may soon be in for some trouble.

In 1990 an ant arrived in Trinidad. Originally from the grasslands in North America, it is now found in high densities in the sunny, grassy sugarcane areas locally.

"Some people think it came from sugar stalks imported from the New Orleans," Wetterer explained. "When they bite they leave a white dot behind. And if you hit the top off their nest they come pouring out. They're really nasty...a close relative to the tropical fire ant." Hopefully, he said, they won't become invasive.

The question-answer segment that followed the hour-long talk turned out to be equally vibrant. Enquiries ran the gamut.

The home and garden sort: "Why are the ants attracted to my orchids?" (Wetterer said that the flowers produce a nectar that attracts the ants and that the ants, in turn, repel other harmful insects.)

Children's lore: "Are ants really a good source of protein?" (And fibre too, the expert confirmed.)

And the inevitable: "What's the best way to get rid of ants?" (The scientist suggested boric acid rather than pesticides which he said are harmful to our own health because they do not break down.)

Ants turned out to be far more engaging that many had suspected. Wetterer for one does not understand the critter discrimination.

"A lot of people only care about fuzzy things with big eyes," he complained. "What's an ant got to do to get some attention?"