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Anagotus Fairburni
''Anagotus fairburni'' or flax weevil is a large flightless weevil. It feeds on leaves of New Zealand flax species where it produces a characteristic feeding notch. It is found on islands and in alpine areas of New Zealand. Taxonomy and description The flax weevil was described by Albert E. Brookes in 1932 based on a series of specimens sent to him by Ernest Richard Fairburn. These were collected at its type locality of D'Urville Island in the Marlborough Sounds in 1931. The type specimen is held at the New Zealand Arthropod Collection. It was described as large and robust in form and ranging in size from 20–24mm. Specimens can range in colour from coppery-brown to dark brown, or even black in older weevils that have lost their scales. They have distinctive pairs of tubercles mid-way along and at the base of the elytra. Larvae are large with a cream coloured body and brown head. The adult is flightless. Distribution and habitat This species is distributed across a wide ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Des Helmore
Desmond W. Helmore (born 1940) is a New Zealand artist and illustrator, known both for his fine art and for his scientific work depicting insects, not least illustrating the New Zealand Arthropod Collection. One of the country's most noted and prolific biological illustrators, over 1000 of his illustrations of insects were published in research papers from 1976 to 2006. Life and education Helmore was born in Takapau, Hawkes Bay, New Zealand, and lived there on a farm until age 12. Interested in drawing since childhood, he attended Christ's College in Christchurch, and then the Ilam School of Fine Arts at the University of Canterbury from 1959 to 1962, where he was taught by Rudi Gopas, Russell Clark, and Bill Sutton. His fellow students at Ilam included Dick Frizzell, Tony Fomison, and John Panting. In his survey of New Zealand art, Frizzell described Helmore as someone who "seemed to have already graduated from somewhere else. All that quiet abstract pondering. I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dusky Sound
Tamatea / Dusky Sound is a fiord on the southwest corner of New Zealand, in Fiordland National Park. Geography One of the most complex of the many fiords on this coast, it is also the largest at 40 kilometres in length and eight kilometres wide at its widest point. To the north of its mouth is the large Resolution Island, whose Five Fingers Peninsula shelters the mouth of the sound from the northwest; along the east coast of the island, Acheron Passage connects Dusky Sound with Breaksea Sound, to the north. Several large islands lie in the sound, notably Anchor Island, Long Island, and Cooper Island. The upper reaches of the sound are steep-sided, and the high precipitation of the region leads to hundreds of waterfalls cascading into the sound during the rainy season. Seals and dolphins are often sighted in the sound's waters and occasionally visited by whales where the area especially nearby Preservation Inlet was one of earliest shore-based whaling ground for southe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Endemic Fauna Of New Zealand
Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsewhere. For example, the Cape sugarbird is found exclusively in southwestern South Africa and is therefore said to be ''endemic'' to that particular part of the world. An endemic species can be also be referred to as an ''endemism'' or in scientific literature as an ''endemite''. For example ''Cytisus aeolicus'' is an endemite of the Italian flora. ''Adzharia renschi'' was once believed to be an endemite of the Caucasus, but it was later discovered to be a non-indigenous species from South America belonging to a different genus. The extreme opposite of an endemic species is one with a cosmopolitan distribution, having a global or widespread range. A rare alternative term for a species that is endemic is "precinctive", which applies to s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Critter Of The Week
''Critter of the Week'' is a weekly RNZ National programme about endangered and neglected native plants and animals of New Zealand. Beginning in 2015, ''Critter of the Week'' is an approximately 15-minute discussion between Nicola Toki of the Department of Conservation and host Jesse Mulligan on an "uncharismatic and lovable" New Zealand species. The topic of spotlighting uncharismatic species was raised in an interview by Mulligan in April 2015, and the programme originated in a discussion between Mulligan and Toki about threatened bird conservation, in which she lamented a lack of attention and corporate funding for species such as the ''Smeagol'' gravel maggot. The first episode, airing 2 October 2015, featured the New Zealand bat fly. Each week's broadcast is supported by improving the Wikipedia article for the species in question. The show currently airs on Friday afternoons. In 2018, artist Giselle Clarkson designed t-shirts featuring a selection of species that had app ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Radio New Zealand
Radio New Zealand ( mi, Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa), commonly known as Radio NZ or simply RNZ, is a New Zealand public-service radio broadcaster and Crown entity that was established under the Radio New Zealand Act 1995. It operates news and current-affairs network, RNZ National, and a classical-music and jazz network, RNZ Concert, with full government funding from NZ on Air. Since 2014, the organisation's focus has been to transform RNZ from a radio broadcaster to a multimedia outlet, increasing its production of digital content in audio, video, and written forms. The organisation plays a central role in New Zealand public broadcasting. The New Zealand Parliament fully funds its AM network, used in part for the broadcast of parliamentary proceedings. RNZ has a statutory role under the Civil Defence Emergency Management Act 2002 to act as a "lifeline utility" in emergency situations. It is also responsible for an international service (known as RNZ Pacific); this is broa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Entomopathogenic Fungus
An entomopathogenic fungus is a fungus that can kill or seriously disable insects. Typical life cycle These fungi usually attach to the external body surface of insects in the form of microscopic spores (usually asexual, mitosporic spores also called conidia). Under the right conditions of temperature and (usually high) humidity, these spores germinate, grow as hyphae and colonize the insect's cuticle; which they bore through by way of enzymatic hydrolysis, reaching the insects' body cavity ( hemocoel). Then, the fungal cells proliferate in the host body cavity, usually as walled hyphae or in the form of wall-less protoplasts (depending on the fungus involved). After some time the insect is usually killed (sometimes by fungal toxins), and new propagules (spores) are formed in or on the insect if environmental conditions are again right. High humidity is usually required for sporulation. Groups The entomopathogenic fungi include taxa from several of the main fungal groups and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Beauveria
''Beauveria'' is a genus of asexually-reproducing fungi allied with the ascomycete family Cordycipitaceae. Its several species are typically insect pathogens. The sexual states ( teleomorphs) of ''Beauveria'' species, where known, are species of ''Cordyceps''. ''Beauveria'' species are white entomopathogenic fungi. They form unicellular conidia that are typically hydrophobic and very small. The conidia are formed holoblastically from basally inflated conidiogenous cells. After conidium production, the conidiogenous cell elongates before producing another conidium atop a small denticle (a narrow projection bearing a conidium or sporangium). The result is the formation of a distinctive, slender, zig-zag rachis. Colonies of ''Beauveria'' species are typically white or off-white on artificial culture media. Species of '' Tritirachium'' resemble ''Beauveria'' species in having a zig-zag conidiogenous cells, but differ in lacking conspicuous denticles and in producing yellow-brown ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mana Island (New Zealand)
Mana Island is the smaller of two islands that lie off the southwest coast of the North Island of New Zealand (the larger is Kapiti Island). The name of the Island is an abbreviation of the Maori name ''Te Mana o Kupe'', which means "The Mana of Kupe". Mana Island is a long, table, with cliffs along much of its coast and a plateau occupying much of the interior. It lies off the North Island coast in the Tasman Sea, west of the city of Porirua and south of the entrance to Porirua Harbour. In 2009, it was selected by the Global Restoration Network as one of New Zealand's top 25 sites for ecological restoration. Although a wildlife sanctuary, and thus with no permanent human population, the island is officially defined as a suburb of Porirua City. History Mana was settled by Māori from the 14th century. In the early 1820s, the Ngati Toa iwi, led by Te Rauparaha established bases on Mana. European occupation began 1830s with a whaling station, and bush was cleared for an ear ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Titi Island
The titis, or titi monkeys, are New World monkeys of the subfamily Callicebinae, which contains three extant genera: ''Cheracebus'', ''Callicebus'', and ''Plecturocebus.'' This subfamily also contains the extinct genera ''Miocallicebus, Homunculus'', and ''Carlocebus''. Titi monkeys live in South America, from Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, east through Brazil, and south to Bolivia and northern Paraguay. Description Depending on species, titis have a head and body length of , and a tail, which is longer than the head and body, of . The different titi species vary substantially in coloring, but resemble each other in most other physical ways. They have long, soft fur, and it is usually reddish, brownish, grayish or blackish, and in most species the underside is lighter or more reddish than the upperside. Some species have contrasting blackish or whitish foreheads, while all members of the genus ''Cheracebus'' have a white half-collar. The tail is always furry and is not prehensile. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Breaksea Island (New Zealand)
Breaksea Island is a rugged island in the southwest of New Zealand, and is part of Fiordland National Park. Its highest point is asl and it lies about from the mainland in the entrance to Te Puaitaha / Breaksea Sound, north of the much larger Resolution Island. It is covered in temperate rainforest and was the site of one of the first successful campaigns to eradicate rats from a sizeable island. Rat eradication The pioneering eradication of brown rats, using brodifacoum in poison baits, was carried out by the New Zealand Department of Conservation (DOC) in May and June 1988 following the success of a pilot campaign on the adjacent, and much smaller (), Hāwea Island in 1986. At the time, Breaksea was six times the size of the previous largest island on which rat eradication had been successful. Since then, DOC has overseen the eradication of a suite of introduced animals from several other islands, the largest being Campbell Island / Motu Ihupuku at .Wilson (2004), pp.282- ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wildlife Act 1953
Wildlife Act 1953 is an Act of Parliament in New Zealand. Under the act, the majority of native New Zealand vertebrate species are protected by law, and may not be hunted, killed, eaten or possessed. Violations may be punished with fines of up to $100,000. Wildlife are classified under a number of schedules; all vertebrate species not included in these lists are protected by default. The schedules are occasionally amended; for example the kea was granted full protection in 1984, whereas the spur-winged plover (masked lapwing), an Australian species which naturally established itself in New Zealand in the 1930s, had its protected status removed in 2012. The Act also provides for wildlife sanctuaries, refuges and management reserves. Schedules Schedule 1 – Wildlife declared to be game This group comprises commonly hunted waterfowl ( mallard, grey duck, Australasian shoveler, paradise shelduck, black swan and pukeko) and introduced game birds, including pheasant, quail, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flax Weevil
''Anagotus fairburni'' or flax weevil is a large flightless weevil. It feeds on leaves of New Zealand flax species where it produces a characteristic feeding notch. It is found on islands and in alpine areas of New Zealand. Taxonomy and description The flax weevil was described by Albert E. Brookes in 1932 based on a series of specimens sent to him by Ernest Richard Fairburn. These were collected at its type locality of D'Urville Island in the Marlborough Sounds in 1931. The type specimen is held at the New Zealand Arthropod Collection. It was described as large and robust in form and ranging in size from 20–24mm. Specimens can range in colour from coppery-brown to dark brown, or even black in older weevils that have lost their scales. They have distinctive pairs of tubercles mid-way along and at the base of the elytra. Larvae are large with a cream coloured body and brown head. The adult is flightless. Distribution and habitat This species is distributed across a wide ran ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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