invertebrates

One of New Zealand’s most well known insects is the wētā, of the Orthoptera order, but there are thousands of...

Insects can be large – like the 130 mm wingspan of the kapokapowai/bush giant dragonfly – or tiny – like...

Pepeke is an animal grouping within te ao Māori. This group name equates to the insect world and calls to...

Discover more about the red admiral butterfly, winner of the 2024 Bug of the Year, and how we can help the butterflies of Aotearoa New Zealand....

This article has been republished from The Conversation under Creative Commons licence CC BY-ND 4.0 and is written by Dr Angela (Ang) McGaughran, Senior Lecturer in...

In 2019, students from three Dunedin primary schools teamed up with University Otago scientist Dr Cynthia Winkworth to complete two goals: to discover which invertebrates were...

Wetland habitats are diverse places. They support an enormous range of animals from microscopic communities to some of Aotearoa New Zealand’s largest birds. Zooplankton – the...

Kōura (freshwater crayfish, Paranephrops planifrons, P. zealandicus) are one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s original inhabitants. They have an ancient lineage that diverged from their Australian relatives...

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...

In this Connected article scientist Hannah Rainforth investigates kākahi, Aotearoa New Zealand’s threatened freshwater mussels in the Whanganui River, to find whether the evidence supports claims...

Kākahi may not be the most well known of our native species, but they are critical to the health of our waterways. In this story, we'll...

We usually think of insects as being animals of the land, but did you know that many insects spend part of their lives in water? Some...

One of New Zealand’s most well known insects is the wētā, of the Orthoptera order, but there are thousands of other insects species, some of which...

What is an insect and should we really care about these creepy crawlies? In a word – yes. As American biologist Edward O Wilson puts it,...

Insects can be large – like the 130 mm wingspan of the kapokapowai/bush giant dragonfly – or tiny – like the 2 mm namu/West Coast blackfly....

New Zealand bats are fully protected by the Wildlife Act 1953, and their habitats are also protected by the Resource Management Act 1991. There are a...

Bats are found throughout the world, except in areas of extreme cold. New Zealand has three species of endemic bats – the long-tailed bat, the lesser...

Our planet has life on it, and for that reason, it may be unique in the universe. Ironically enough, we know much more about some of...

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...

Introduced wasps cause all sort of problems for people and native species, but did you know we have native wasps in New Zealand? What is a...

Imagine being able to smell your dinner from the other side of a sports field. Insects do this with the pair of antennae on their heads....

This article recounts the conversation between Tane, his dad and the scientists they find testing the health of their local river. It looks at the information...

New Zealand might be an island nation, but that doesn’t stop us from having to deal with a variety of unwanted organisms that find their way...

Ahi Pepe MothNet is a citizen science project that explores New Zealand’s native moths, their distributions and whether vegetation restoration impacts moth diversity. One aspect of...

Moths are members of the order Lepidoptera, but these mostly nocturnal creatures are often in the shadow of the brighter, day-flying butterflies. New Zealand has fewer...

The New Zealand Government’s Participatory Science Platform (PSP) is a world-first initiative that aims to engage communities in research projects that are locally relevant and have...

Names are important. They identify who we are and where we come from. But sometimes, names don’t tell the whole story. For example, the Oxford Dictionary...