TThhee AAllllaann WWiillssoonn CCeennttrree NNeewwsslleetttteerr Issue Number 4 (September 2006) Origins and Dispersal of the Ngā Orokohanga me ngā Polynesian Bottle Gourd Tuaritanga o te Hue o Te Moana nui a Kiwa Our research group at the Allan Wilson Inside this issue Kua kitea e tō mātou rōpū i te Allan Centre have discovered the bottle Wilson Centre, ko te Hue (he Bottle Origins and Dispersal of the gourd (or hue in Māori) grown in Gourd i te reo Ingarihi) e tipu ana ki Te Polynesia originated in both Asia and Polynesian Bottle Gourd ..........1 Moana nui a Kiwa, i taketake mai i Āhia the Americas. The bottle gourd, which me ngā motu o Amerika. Ko te hue Ngā Orokohanga me ngā is closely related to the pumpkin, is one tētahi o ngā huawhenua maha i kawea of the many crops that Polynesians Tuaritanga o te Hue o Te Moana mai e ngā tāngata o Te Moana nui ā took with them as they settled the nui a Kiwa ...................................1 Kiwa i a rātou e noho haere ana i ngā islands of the Pacific, including moutere o te Moana nui ā Kiwa, tae Aotearoa New Zealand. ‘Giant’ Collembola of New noa ki Aotearoa. He whanaunga tata te Zealand: The Largest Springtails hue ki te paukena. Anthropologists had previously in the World!................................4 suggested the bottle gourd had come I ngā rā ki muri, i kī ngā tohunga from South America along with the tikanga tangata i taketake kē mai te Tuatara Assisting with Education sweet potato (kumara), but our hue i Amerika ki te Tonga i te taha o te Outreach .....................................7 research shows there is also a kūmara, heoi kua kitea i roto i tō mātou significant genetic contribution from rangahau, te kaha uru o ngā momo Celebration of Te Kopinga, First Asia, and that Polynesian bottle gourds whakaheke mai i Āhia ā, ko te mea kē, Marae of the Moriori ..................8 are in fact hybrids between gourds from he kākano whakauru kē nō ngā motu e both of these continents. rua nei. Phylogeography of He tino maha ngā kākano hue i Carnivorous Land Snails We collected a large number of bottle gourds seeds from Asia and the kohikohia e mātou i Āhia me ngā wāhi (Family Rhytididae) ................10 Americas, as well as eight Māori bottle o Amerika whānui, tae noa ki ngā hue e gourds from New Zealand. waru o Aotearoa. Recent Publications ................14 Contact Us ................................16 Figure 1: Māori variety of bottle gourd (hue) from the Auckland region, growing in Otaki, Kapiti Coast during late summer, 1999. (Photo credit: Mike Burtenshaw). 1 The Māori gourds were obtained from marae and heritage I tīkina mai ngā hue Māori i ngā marae me ētahi kamupene seed companies, and are thought to be derived from true pupuri ā-tikanga i ngā kākano ā, ko te whakaaro, i ahu mai Māori bottle gourds grown in pre-European New Zealand. ēnei i ngā hue a te Māori i whakatipuria i mua i te taenga mai o te Pākehā. This collection was used to develop DNA markers that could be used to trace the gourd’s origins. We used DNA I whakamahia tēnei kohikohinga hei hanga tohu pītau-ira fingerprinting, similar to that used to identify humans, to (DNA) hei whakataki i te takenga mai o te hue. I whakamahia locate regions of the gourd genome that are variable. Just e mātou te tapukara pītau ira (DNA) rite ana ki tērā e as in humans, individual bottle gourds share nearly whakamahia ana ki te tautuhi i te tangata, hei rapu i ngā wāhi identical DNA – probably more than 99% – so the DNA tipu ai te hue whai tāupe. He tino ōrite katoa nei ngā pītau-ira fingerprinting is used to identify the less than 1% of the o ia hue, pērā anō ki te tangata – te āhua nei nui atu i te 99 DNA that makes each bottle gourd different. These ōrau – nā reira ka whakamahia te tapukara pītau-ira hei variable DNA fragments could then be used as DNA tautuhi i te toenga o te 1 ōrau o te pītau-ira, e rerekē ai tēnā markers to trace the origins of the Polynesian bottle gourd. hue ki tēnā hue. Ka taea ēnei maramara pītau-ira tāupe te whakamahi hei kai tohu pītau-ira, hei whakataki hoki i te The DNA markers showed that Asian gourds are all of one takenga mai o te hue o Te Moana nui a Kiwa. type, American gourds are all of another type, and that Polynesian gourds are a mixture of both. This opens a I whakaaturia mai e ngā kaitohutohu pītau-ira he momo kotahi number of possibilities for the dispersal of this species. ngā hue katoa o Āhia, he momo kotahi atu anō ngā hue o Amerika, ā he raranu o ngā mea e rua te hue o Te Moana nui ā Kiwa. Nā konei, kua puta ngā whakaaro mō te puananī o tēnei momo. Figure 2: Pai Kanohi with gourd containers (tahā huahua) for preserving wood pigeons (kererū), circa 1910. Ruatahuna, Huiarau Range (just north of Lake Waikaremoana), North Island. 2 (Photo credit: Archives New Zealand and the Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington). Bottle gourds could have been brought from Asia with the Tērā pea i haria mai te hue i Āhia e ngā tūpuna o Te Moana ancestors of Polynesians when they moved out of South nui ā Kiwa i te wā i puta ai rātou i Āhia ki te tonga, e 5,000 tau East Asia 5,000 years ago, or perhaps with later migrants ki muri. Tērā pea i haria mai ngā hue Amerikana ki Te Moana from Asia. The American gourds could have been nui ā Kiwa i te taha o te kūmara: Inā hoki, tērā tētahi kōrero, i introduced to Polynesia with the kumara. Polynesian haere ngā kaiwhakatere waka o Te Moana nui ā Kiwa mai i voyagers are thought to have sailed from Easter Island to Rapanui ki Amerika ki te Tonga, he āhua 1,000 tau ki muri, i South America about 1,000 years ago and collected the reira kohikohi ai i te kumara i mua i tōna hokinga ki te Moana- kumara before sailing back to Polynesia. The bottle gourd nui-Kiwa. He tino māngi te hue, nā reira ko wai ka mōhio tērā is also very buoyant, so we cannot rule out that a gourd pea i māunu kē mai i Āhia, mai i ngā wāhi o Amerika rānei, ki floated from Asia or the Americas to Polynesia, where it Te Moana nui ā Kiwa. I reira ka kohia mai te ākau ka was picked up from a beach and propagated from the whakamakuru ai ngā kākano o roto i te hue. seeds which are stored inside the fruit. Ko te hue tētahi o ngā momo huawhenua tino hira i mua i te The bottle gourd was one of the most important crop taenga o ngāi Pākehā ki Te Moana nui ā Kiwa. I kainga ngā species in pre-European Polynesia. In New Zealand young hue iti (pērā ki te zucchini) engari i tino whakamahia ngā hue i bottle gourds were eaten (like zucchini), but were mainly te wā kua hua, kua maroke hoki. I hākarohia ēnei hue mārō used when dry and mature. These hard-shelled bottle nei ana, kātahi ka whakamahia hei oko kawe wai, hei ipu, hei gourds were hollowed out and used primarily as water- kūmete kai rānei (ka huahuatia ngā tītī me ngā tūi) hei taonga carrying vessels, containers for food (muttonbirds and tui pūoro, hei tīheru mō te waka. E whakatipua tonu ana te hue were stored in their own fat), musical instruments and a te Māori, i Aotearoa nei, heoi hei whakapaipai noa iho, canoe bailers. Māori bottle gourds are still grown in New (pērā ki tā te pikitia nei) i te nuinga o te wā, me te whakaora Zealand today, but mostly for ornamental purposes (such tonu i tēnei āhuatanga o Te Moana nui ā Kiwa me te ao o te as the one pictured) and to preserve this important part of Māori. Polynesian and Māori life. Acknowledgement: NGĀ MIHI We are grateful to Mr Jonathan Ngā mihi ki a Jonathan Procter me Rangitāne Procter and Rangitaane O o Manawatū mō tā rātou tautoko i ngā mahi ira Manawatu for supporting the tangata i whakahaerehia e pā ana ki te hue. genetic work undertaken on the bottle gourd. Andrew Clarke English to Māori translation by PhD student Māori Language Services, Massey University Māori Language Commission – [email protected] Figure 3: Ornamental bottle gourd carved with Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori. modern Māori design. (Photo credit: Andrew Clarke). 3 ‘Giant’ Collembola of New tasmaniae, Acanthanura dendyi, worms (Peripatus), but the Zealand: The Largest Womersleymeria bicornis), and New Uchidanurinae are currently only Zealand (Holacanthella spinosa, H. considered to be of extreme Springtails in the World! paucispinosa, H. brevispinosa, H. conservation status in Australia. They duospinosa, H. laterospinosa). are likely to be a particularly important What do Collembola do? part of New Zealand’s saproxylic fauna Collembola (springtails) are an ancient These species are particularly as springtails have been shown to be (>412MYA) and highly successful class remarkable in that some are the largest key agents in controlling the dynamics of hexapod dating back to at least the springtails recorded world-wide (up to of soil microorganisms (bacteria, fungi Devonian (Rhyniella praecursor) or 17 mm long for the New Zealand and algae), and thus play a crucial role Upper Silurian. Although predominantly species), and most sport coloured in defining the composition of the soil and litter dwellers, they also occur digitations (spine-like projections) on saproxylic community.