Issue 18 Spring-2016-Hyperlinks
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ISSUE 18 | SPRING 2016 PLUS ON PAGE 20 ORDER YOUR 2017 CALENDAR NOw Scintillating 2017 Calendar CINNABAR moth SPONSORED BY ALSO IN THIS ISSUE: SAVE THE FOREST RINGLET | BUTTERFLY GARDENING AOTEAROA | PESTS & PREDATORS 2 We are delighted to From the reveal our Platinum sponsor: Yealands Family Wines. What an amazing EdItoR vineyard and winery this is. I was astounded when veryone is talking about I visited there and you the ‘warm winter’. I will be too when you hear CoNtENtS E translate that to mean more wasps about their sustainability initiatives. Cover photo: Frank Porch eating our caterpillars this season. It’s The gorgeous cinnabar moth is going to be a hard job for the butterflies described inside. Have you seen it? 2 to sustain their numbers. Already I have What a shock it was when I saw my Editorial monarchs laying on my milkweed so first. A beautiful creature, reminds 3 Platinum Sponsor hopefully I can get these early ones me of a flamenco dancer. Announced through to a good head start. We have started a new slant on Real-life experience If wasps and aphids are a problem the gardening column: readers there are some practical tips for you throughout the country are invited 4-5 Scintillating Cinnabar Moth in this magazine. to contribute their ideas to help 6 We are making way with our Forest the butterflies. If you’d like to The Forest Ringlet Project Ringlet Project. You can read more contribute to the Summer issue of 7 Establishing Balmoral about this endangered butterfly and BUTTERFLIES, please email me Coppers what we plan to do and achieve in [email protected]. We Introducing Steve Wheatley this issue. We are so grateful to our would also like to have more reviews PR team, a group of Communications of schools and what they are doing 8 Paeroa Central School students from AUT who are helping for butterflies, both outdoors and 9 us get this off the ground. Your within the classroom. Eden Terrace Butterflies support would be invaluable. Read And our exciting fundraiser, 10-11 Yealands: Sustainability more what you can do inside. more screenings of FLIGHT OF Personified THE BUTTERFLIES in 3D are coming 13 Creating More Habitat closer to where you 14 Large Whites Gone live. At this time we have screenings set Cabbage Whites Help up for Auckland, 15 Pests and Predators Christchurch and Kerikeri. Will it come 16-17 ButterflyGardening to your 3D cinema Aotearoa next? 18 ButterflyGardening Of course, there’s more inside. Boil the Aotearoa kettle and sit down 19 Flight of the Butterflies in with a cuppa and 3D enjoy your Spring magazine. 20 In Our Shop Patron: Sir Robert Harvey, KNZM, QSO A Big Thank you to our Sponsors Editor/Secretary: Jacqui Knight Platinum Sponsors [email protected] Graphic Designer: Jai Pancha, [email protected] Treasurer: Carol Stensness [email protected] Advertising: Angela Moon-Jones [email protected] ISSN 2324-1993 (Print) Silver Sponsors ISSN 2324-2000 (Online) Published by: Moths and Butterflies of New Zealand Trust, PO Box 44100 Pt Chevalier, Auckland 1246 www.nzbutterflies.org.nz [email protected] https://www.facebook.com/mbnzt Magazine Sponsors mbnztorg pinterest.com/mbnzt mothsandbutterfliesnztrust Printed in New Zealand on Cocoon 100% Gubba recycled paper using vegetable-based inks The enthusiasm of the Yealands’ team 3 led by head groundsman James Morison means that we are working together to identify other suitable Lepidoptera species and hope to gradually establish habitats for them. They have already planted a number of stinging nettles in Butterfly Gully as admiral habitat. The White Road which winds through the vineyards has been developed to allow visitors to enjoy the biodiversity as well as learn about sustainable wine production. Vines, wetlands, the winery, sheep, compost, hens, more vines – and Butterfly Gully! There’s a mobile phone app to guide you. Definitely worth a visit if you’re in Marlborough. www.yealands.co.nz PLAtINUm SPoNSoR Christchurch announced Butterfly Day e are delighted to announce Organisation category. Butterfly Day that Yealands Family Wines Yealands is the largest single-site Saturday 18 February 2017 has become Platinum Sponsor vineyard and winery in NZ: 1,000 1-4pm W Bromley Community Centre of the Moths and Butterflies of New hectares near Seddon, Marlborough. 49 Bromley Road Zealand Trust, with a substantial annual Of course we could rave on about the donation. wine – but what thrills us even more is Do you have a display or As well, Yealands is joining our Yealands’ emphasis on sustainability and activity? magazine sponsors which enable us to biodiversity – and love of butterflies. A Would you like to help out on produce four editions of this magazine few years back they planted ‘Butterfly the day? every year, and our annual calendar. Gully’ in swan plants to host monarchs And the winery is well along the and wild flowers between the rows of Please contact track to becoming the Trust’s first vines. Monarchs galore last summer. But [email protected] Certified Butterfly Friendly Habitat in the wait – there’s more. Real-life EXPERIENCE Photo, from left: Kirsty Pickett, Serena Low, Jacqui Knight, Jaime-Lee Wright, Micaela Ikinofo and Bella Ireland. t’s a win-win for the Moths and Butterflies of NZ Trust and five young women completing their I communication degrees. The Auckland University of Technology students have taken the trust under their wing with a special public relations project: to increase the awareness of the forest ringlet, which is now facing extinction. Through their communication strategy, including radio interviews, a Givealittle site and social media campaign, they aim to raise the profile of the rare species and funds for research to ensure its survival. So far, the students are surprised by how much they have learned. Kirsty Pickett, the ‘account manager’, said the group was initially concerned because she and her classmates didn’t know much about butterflies and conservation. “But the more we do for the trust, the more we learn about these fascinating creatures.” The multi-pronged project is part of their third-year paper entitled PR Strategy and Practice. It provides a real-life experience where the young women work in a student PR agency called Outside the Square. Students work on projects with not-for-profit clients, so the trust was a perfect match. Check out our Givealittle page https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/forestringletbutterfly 4 Scintillating CINNABAR MOTH Story by Brian Patrick Photos by Nick Broomer he cinnabar moth (Tyria jacobaeae) orange-brown larvae are conspicuous on was introduced from Europe for ragwort, where they can build up quite T the biological control of ragwort large numbers Demolishing the tall herb, in the 1940s. Its introduction wasn’t as was intended with their introduction. an immediate success but since the The moth family Erebidae is among 1980s it has been increasing its range the most speciose of all moth families further south on the West Coast of the worldwide but is poorly represented in South Island, in North Canterbury and New Zealand with just four endemic Marlborough, and in the Wellington to species. It also includes some of the Wairarapa region. largest moths known and is generally Typically for its family of moths, the found around the world particularly in Erebidae which includes the familiar tropical places. magpie and tiger moths, it is day- The species is an excellent candidate flying and colourful. With its bright for the study of insect metamorphosis red colouration and contrasting black as rearing of it is straightforward and markings, and generally weak flight it satisfying. And its larval foodplant is conspicuous on sunny days from the ragwort is so widespread and common. north of the North Island south to the As you can see its introduction to control Reefton area on the South Island’s West ragwort has not been a success despite Coast region. Its wingspan varies from 3 the fact that the moth is fairly widespread to 3.5cm. and can be locally common in the Similarly, its banded black and northern two-thirds of the country. 5 The caterpillars are easy to see with their bold yellow and black stripes. They are commonly found on ragwort between December and February. Pruning roses or Planting stinging nettles for butterflies? You need omni rose Pruning gloves. available at garden centres nationwide. www.omniproducts.co.nz 6 The Forest Ringlet THE FOREST PRoject RINGLET NEEDS YOUR HELP www.givealittle.co.nz/cause/ forestringletbutterfly or MBNZT with Kiwibank, 38-9009-0654693-00 Egg on Gahnia species he MBNZT is investing in a commonly around the district where I long-term project to turn around lived,” he said. “The larval foodplant was Tthe fortunes of the forest ringlet, Gahnia pauciflora, a common sedge (Dodonidia helmsii). growing under the dominant Southern This endemic butterfly is the sole beech forest. In 1970 the population was larvae on Gahnia member of its genus worldwide. At one dense enough to enable me to easily time it was found in many areas of native observe eggs, larvae and adults along forest from Northland down to northern the Muritai Park track margins, forming Westland. the basis of the account in my book New Robert Hoare, a Lepidoptera Zealand Butterflies; Identification and systematist, commented that the Natural History (1980). butterfly remains a very poorly To his knowledge no direct evidence of understood species and the causes of a causal agent has been obtained. its decline are still a matter of debate Since 2000, George has been and speculation. monitoring the local population by A shortage of entomologists and means of a standard survey of mature funding for invertebrate conservation larvae.