butterflies and moths

When Hub writers, Paula Lourie and Angela Schipper, first raised the topic of creating a range of articles about butterflies for the Science Learning Hub, they...

This unit plan is designed for students in years 6-8. When someone mentions the word ‘butterfly’, what image pops into your head? Chances are it’s the...

This unit plan is designed for students in years 1-5. When someone mentions the word butterfly, what image pops into your head? Chances are it’s the...

In this activity, students use white butterfly eggs, larvae and pupae to examine the white butterfly life cycle and to compare it with that of a...

In this activity, students place small stickers (tags) onto caught or newly emerged monarch butterflies and release them into the environment. The tag number, information about...

In this activity, students set up and walk a transect to observe and record butterfly sightings. Butterfly sightings are then recorded on the Monarch Butterfly New...

Position: Founding trustee and Trust secretary, Moths and Butterflies of New Zealand Trust Pūrerehua Aotearoa (formerly the Monarch Butterfly New Zealand Trust). Field: Conservation of native...

Big, bold butterflies like the monarch are easy to spot. If you want to see some of our natives, careful observation is the key. null

Butterflies are appealing insects. We actively encourage them to visit our gardens, but white butterflies (Pieris rapae rapae) are an exception. We consider them unwelcome dinner...

Citizen scientists are volunteers who participate in scientific projects. They work in partnership with scientists to answer interesting and relevant questions. When involved in environmental projects,...

New Zealand’s most identifiable butterfly is the monarch (Danaus plexippus). Although found in many places around the world, the monarch is considered a New Zealand native...

Butterflies are the exhibitionists of the insect world. For many invertebrates, camouflage is the best defence against predators, so how do brightly coloured butterflies protect themselves?...

Butterflies and moths form the insect order Lepidoptera. The word ‘Lepidoptera’ comes from the Greek ‘lepis’ meaning scale and ‘petron’ meaning wing. When you look at...

What do kiwi, tuatara and many butterflies have in common in New Zealand? They are all native animals that the average person rarely sees in the...

Butterflies make very poor fossils. They have no bones or other solid matter that can be preserved. Therefore, unlike other animals, we can’t use their fossils...

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...

In this webinar, join Greta Dromgool as she introduces Tom Saunders and Chrissie Painting – two of Aotearoa New Zealand’s amazing entomologists. Delve into the fascinating...

Pollinators are insects that visit flowers to drink nectar or feed on pollen. During this process, they get covered in pollen grains and then transport the...

In Spring 2020 Countdown developed a fantastic collection of insect cards and an album full of amazing facts and activities all about insects found in Aotearoa...

This article introduces students to a citizen science project that tags and tracks monarch butterflies to see where they go to overwinter. It notes the importance...

This New Zealand-based citizen science project collects data about butterflies in our gardens, schools, parks and farms – any location in the country or on the...

iNaturalist logs hundreds of thousands of photos of flora, fauna and fungi. There are even sound recordings too. Each is described and geo located. iNaturalist is...

We know that some animals make amazing long-distance journeys called migrations. This article explores some of the technology scientists use to track the animals and their...

Communication in science takes many forms. When Dr Corrine Watts discovered unusual pinkish-orange larvae living inside wetland plants, she turned to Dr Robert Hoare for help...