I recently accompanied Emma’s father (Stewart), his friend (David), and David’s avian aversion certified Labrador (Sika) on a four day/three night tramp (AKA ‘hike’ for those not familiar with the New Zealand lingo). Click on any of the photos in this post to get a closer look. Note: Only registered, avian aversion certified hunting dogs, Guide…
Category: Lepidoptera
New Zealand’s Largest & Heaviest Native Moth
Click to zoom in There are many names for the largest native moth in New Zealand, and much can be gleaned from a name… The Pūriri Moth (Aenetus virescens) One of the grub’s main host trees is the pūriri tree (Vitex lucens) hence a common name being the pūriri moth. The Ghost Moth Ngāti Kahungunu (the Māori iwi…
Sphingids of Spain: The Broad-bordered Bee Hawk-moth
In this post, we want to share with you another beautiful Sphingid, the broad-bordered bee hawk-moth (Hemaris fuciformis). It is nationally scarce in the UK and restricted to small areas, so we were pretty excited to see it in Spain.
Sphingids of Spain: Is That a Hummingbird? No, It’s a Hawk-moth!
You might have noticed that we haven’t been blogging very much recently. The reason for this is because we’ve been on the road travelling through France and Spain. Tom cycled 1000 kilometres from Bristol, UK, to Toulouse, France, over eight days to raise money for Pancreatic Cancer UK in memory of his dad. Tom’s mum…
Gotta Count ’em All – Butterfly Bonanza
Over the past few weeks, we have been getting out and doing some volunteering. Being self-employed ecologists racing across the globe back and forth from NZ to the UK and the UK to NZ, we spend a lot of our time chasing paid work. This doesn’t give us much time to volunteer. Saying that, if…
From the Garden
So much of my childhood was occupied by garden explorations – trying to find the shiniest beetle, the jumpiest leaf hopper, the longest stick insect, the biggest bug… The emperor gum moth and its caterpillar were always the ultimate find.
Butterfly Trap
During a recent trip to Vietnam, I returned to Cúc Phương National Park, Vietnam.