Tom and I recently entered a photography competition put on by the Entomological Society of New Zealand. A family friend of ours, knowing our love for wildlife photography, saw it advertised in the local paper and gave us the article. It was only a couple of days before the closing date, so we both chose two…
Tag: Entomology
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…
A New Zealand Category I Threatened Species: The Flightless Spiny Longhorn Beetle
A Night at Bushy Park Sanctuary Tom and I joined our friend and natural history curator of the Whanganui Regional Museum, Mike Dickison, and fellow naturalist, Lisa, for a night out at Bushy Park light-trapping for insects. Whilst waiting for the trap to draw in the local residents, we took a stroll along one of…
A Golden-spotted Tiger Beetle in Borneo (Cicindela aurulenta)
Down at the Jetty Zipping about in the patches of sunlight down by the jetty at Danau Girang Field Centre were many jewel-like tiger beetles. Click to zoom in Capturing Tiger Beetles on Camera Capturing them on camera was the real challenge because as soon as they noticed your movement, they were off like a…
A Last Minute Lantern Bug (Pyrops whiteheadi)
The Search for a Lantern Bug The day before we were due to leave Danau Girang Field Centre in Borneo, and after a week of searching high and low for one, we found this beautiful lantern bug. We came across it on the buttress roots of a tree near the jetty at the field centre….
Putting a Face to a Sound: The Speckled Bush-cricket
That doesn’t sound like a bat… The majority of our paid work in the UK, especially as of late, is to carry out bat surveys. This involves turning up to a site just before dusk or dawn and listening out for bat echolocations using a special piece of equipment, a bat detector. Bats found in…
On the Road: Stag Beetles (Lucanus cervus)
Setting the Scene Now 250km in to my 1000km charity bike ride; tired, sore and almost at the brow of the last hill of the day, I cycled past a male stag beetle wandering out from the grass verge and heading straight for certain death in the two-way traffic. ‘But I’m so close to the…
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…
Ruby-tailed Wasp: Beautiful, But Deadly*
After a 4-hour drive home after a few days away, we finally pulled onto the drive. With a sigh and a conscious mustering of energy, I attempted to swing myself from the car. Emma, sat in the passenger seat, suddenly pointed out of the window at the front wall of the house and said, ‘ruby-tailed wasp!’ I was…
Exploring the Malaysian Jungle: Endau-Rompin National Park
Tom and I spend the southern hemisphere’s summer in New Zealand, my home country, and the northern hemisphere’s summer in England, Tom’s home country. We follow the summer because it is also the ecology season when we get most work. The flight can be pretty long when you have to travel half-way around the globe, so…
New Zealand’s Longest Beetle: the Giraffe Weevil (Lasiorhynchus barbicornis)
The New Zealand giraffe weevil is endemic to our country, and is in fact our longest beetle. It is also the longest beetle in the world of its family.