Teacher PLD

Living World – Insects

Investigate insects found in New Zealand to answer questions about life cycles, classification, conservation and biosecurity. Start by watching our webinar All about insects.

Below are links to a wide range of Science Learning Hub resources primarily aimed at primary teachers and related to insects in the Living World strand of the New Zealand Curriculum.

Various image of insects and students and insects with logo

All about insects

Insects offer stimulating content with which teachers can feed student curiosity and grow science knowledge and capabilities.

Rights: The University of Waikato Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato

The Super Insects article has all of Countdown’s Super Insect teacher resources available as free downloadables – including an overview poster, 10 activity cards and a cross-curricular activity bonus.

Native insects

The islands that make up this country are home to a vast number of species found nowhere else in the world. Learn about some of our native insects. Explore this further in our article What’s so special about insects?

New Zealand's threatened/At risk insect species poster.

Last of the species?

This poster gives some examples of just three of the thousands of invertebrates that are listed as threatened or at risk in New Zealand.

Illustrations by Emma Scheltema

Download the poster here.

Rights: New Zealand insect cards project
range of labeled wētā in a Collections sample drawer.

Wētā

An example of one of the drawers full of specimens found at Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research. This shows the range of wētā found in New Zealand.

Rights: The University of Waikato Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato

Life cycles

Insect life cycles have many similarities and differences, making them an ideal way to learn about life processes.

Monarch butterfly life cycle

The life cycle of the monarch butterfly. Click on one of titles to find out more about each stage.

Rights: University of Waikato

Bees

Honey bee are the most important pollinators of many cultivated food crops and other flowering plants. See our bees topic for more.

Honey bee with its head into a pink flower.

Honey bee on flower

This honey bee has pushed its head into a flower to search for nectar. Pollen from the stamens will rub off on its body and get carried to another flower.

Rights: Neville Gardner

People are doing heaps for kauri, kiwi and kākāpō but nothing for endemic butterfly species, yet insects are crucial to the ecosystem.

Jacqui Knight

Butterflies and moths

Almost all of the butterflies in New Zealand are native and most are endemic. Compared to big, colourful species from other countries, our native butterflies are small and secretive. See our butterflies and moths topic for more.

Rauparaha’s copper (Lycaena rauparaha) butterfly.

Rauparaha’s copper

The Rauparaha’s copper (Lycaena rauparaha) is said to be named after the famous warrior as its more heavily populated habitats are found along the coastal strip from Taranaki to Wellington where Te Rauparaha was most active.

Rights: Jérôme Albre

Innovative ideas

Insects are used by science to inspire and solve a number of problems.

Where we’re controlling insects without the side effects that other control tactics seem to have is a very satisfying thing personally because it’s helping to green New Zealand even further.

Dr Max Suckling

Biosecurity and biocontrol

Insects are both an issue and a solution when it comes to protecting New Zealand's natural and primary production environments. For more, browse the range of resources under the biosecurity and biocontrol topics.

Introduced pests:

Bees and varroa

Watch varroa mites (white juveniles and brown adults) on honey bees and learn how they spread viruses that kill bee colonies. Dr Mark Goodwin shows hives being treated to control the mite.

Rights: University of Waikato

Biocontrol success stories:

Monitoring

Find out what insects are in your local environment with these activities:

Citizen science projects

  • Participate in the New Zealand Mosquito Census and help scientists at Te Papa learn more about the various mosquitos in Aotearoa.

  • Global Earth Challenge is an international citizen science project that has a section on monitoring insect population changes.

More on insects

Dolomedes sp. preying on a mountain galaxias (Galaxias olidus)

A spider preying on a fish

Dolomedes sp. preying on a mountain galaxias (Galaxias olidus) on the bank of North Branch Creek near Goomburra, Queensland, Australia.

Rights: © Nyffeler M, Pusey BJ (2014) Fish Predation by Semi-Aquatic Spiders: A Global Pattern. PLoS ONE 9(6): e99459. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0099459 Photo by Peter Liley. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Useful links

Visit our Wasps and We love bugs! Pinterest boards for links to more resources and community activities.

The Entomological Society of New Zealand was formed to provide a common meeting ground for everyone interested in entomology in New Zealand. It aims to stimulate interest, encourage amateurs and promote the profession of entomology. They run the annual Bug of the Year contest.

Published: 2 July 2015Updated: 22 June 2023