happy_piwakawaka

joined 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 months ago (3 children)

I flew domestic from Wellington this morning and was still required to take out laptops - though this was Jetstar.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago

That's the beauty of Pancake Day - you can have pancakes at any time!

1
NZ Bug of the Year 2024 Nominees (bugoftheyear.ento.org.nz)
submitted 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
 

The Entomological Society of New Zealand is proud to launch the second ever Bug of the Year 2024 competition with 20 incredible nominees vying for the top spot. Learn more about the nominees before you vote!

Who will steal the crown from the ngaro huruhuru native bee?

Voting is open through 12 Feb 2024

Eight charming bugs who deserve your love - Article from the Spinoff that prompted this post

 

https://www.landcareresearch.co.nz/tools-and-resources/identification/what-is-this-bug/monarch-caterpillar/

It's that time of year again, when the kids (and myself) get overly invested in the lifecycle of these grubs. Last year we managed maybe a 10% success rate (from egg to butterfly) hopefully we'll do better this time round.

 

http://soilbugs.massey.ac.nz/pseudoscorpions.php

Pictured here crawling along my shorts. Apparently they'll attach themselves to flys and other flying insects to grab a ride off to other places.

 

Had heard people talking about "bluebottles" spoiling beach trips further up the coast, and there were loads of these at Lyall bay yesterday (we weren't there to swim so nothing spoiled).

Where I'm from bluebottles are a large fly but reading on Wikipedia these are actually the same species as the famous Portuguese Man O'War (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_man_o'_war).

 

New Zealand Giant Stick Insect - Argosarchus horridus

Was visited by this not so wee one yesterday. Never seen a stick insect this big outside of the zoo - was probably close to 18cm long (judging size against weatherboards).

My daughter named it Dave.

 

Pretty shit for the staff, but honestly not surprising if they're charging $10 for a basic egg sandwich.