Johno Ridden

Painting by Pete Amato. In the centre of the top half of the painting, is the head and shoulders of a feminine figure with longish purple silver hair splaying out around her. Her eyes are entirely white and she has a green moko kauae on her lips and chin. Her shoulders are covered with a cloak (korowai), decorated with spirals (koru) and saw-edged triangle (niho taniwha), representing new beginnings and strength. To her left are blue green waves, above them darkness, stars and a moon in shadow. Directly above her sits a full moon. To her right float little islands with a tree above them, their roots dangling. Above them sits another half moon, this one sitting in a purple wispy sky. The bottom half of the painting is dominated by a stepped motif symbolising the gain on knowledge (poutama) in the background and a crescent shaped motif (kape) that represents the glow of the moon in the foreground. Long earthworms twist around a fish hook (hei matau). To the bottom and left, twists a dark purple eel. The painting's dominant colours are purple, grey, blue and green.

Not voted in the #BugoftheYear2026 competition? We commissioned Wairoa artist Pete Amato (Ngāti Kahungunu ki Te Wairoa) to show why we think the North Auckland Worm deserves your vote. Check out his amazing painting - Hīnātore! It's only a little smaller than the worm itself :) 1/n

Leilani is one of the best! Highly recommend applying if you're looking for a PhD project. @lanipai.bsky.social

Opportunity: Arthropod Taxonomic Specialists (10 positions) at the University of Guelph 🪰🐝🪲🕷️🦂

Our new piece is out in @nature.com big mihi to all my co-authors it was a pleasure to work with you on this @lanipai.bsky.social @niiyokamigaabaw.bsky.social @napaaqtuk.bsky.social @sereananaepi.bsky.social @1nativesoilnerd.bsky.social Bradley Moggridge and Brittany Kamai
tinyurl.com/yc4y9kfk

David Seymour’s UN letter: arrogance, ignorance and hypocrisy OPINION: David Seymour's ignorance of international human rights protocol jeopardises New Zealand's reputation as a champion of human rights and the international legal order.

www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/3607... #nzpol #nz

If you're a researcher in NZ please do our very short survey on the Vision Mātauranga policy! We are keen to hear your opinions. DM for the survey link

Giving rivers room to move: how rethinking flood management can benefit people and nature Restraining rivers through stop banks and channels transfers and heightens flood risks downstream. Allowing them to roam free limits flooding and delivers other ecological benefits.

As the north of the South Island of NZ gets hammered by floods for the third time in as many weeks, now is as good a time as ever to reconsider how we manage flood risk. Rivers need space to flood into. Giving them room to function also brings widespread ecological benefits.

Trichoptera systematics: past, present, and future—making the case for continued caddisfly taxonomic research Abstract. We review the developments in caddisfly (Insecta: Trichoptera) systematics starting with Linnaeus through to the present time. We give a brief in

If you’re interested in the past, present, and future of caddisfly systematics, we’ve got your back. Here’s our contribution to the Insect Systematics and Diversity special issue doi.org/10.1093/isd/...

No worries, it is a great cause and you are doing the mahi for it! 🎉 congrats on reaching your goal!

@corvink.bsky.social the formula 1 board game sort of looks like Flamme Rouge!

YouTube video by Ze Frank True Facts: Beetles That Took Things Too Far

Today I have levelled up as a scientist & reached a life goal i didn't realise I had. My giraffe weevil research is featured in the new True Facts clip on beetles. Too good. youtu.be/spuO7OpS6zw?...

From plant traits to fire behavior: Scaling issues in flammability studies Despite fire being one of the oldest and most important ecological disturbance processes on Earth, many aspects of fire–vegetation feedbacks are poorly understood, limiting their accurate representat...

Very excited to see this paper out!

Led by @schwilk.org, with @azhar06.bsky.social @ecologybrad.bsky.social @rachaelnolan.bsky.social @alefidelis.bsky.social @ioliverasmenor.bsky.social @dendromecon27.bsky.social @profalistairsmith.bsky.social

bsapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

A photograph of a giant springtail: a soft bodied, blue invertebrate with yellow spines on its dorsal surface.

A photograph of a giant springtail: a soft bodied, blue invertebrate with yellow spines on its dorsal surface.

I bring you exciting news... I FOUND THE FIRST EVER GIANT SPRINGTAILS IN CHRISTCHURCH!

The closest population before this were at Arthur's Pass, but now we can add the Port Hills to their distribution.

Definitely my best observation from the iNaturalist City Nature Challenge.

#SoilBiodiversity🧪

Happy Valentine's Day!

Learn more about the Exquisite Owlet here.
bugoftheyear.ento.org.nz/2025-bug-of-...

#bugoftheyear2025
The Entomological Society of New Zealand

Reforms to NZ's science sector The government has announced the largest reforms to NZ's science sector in over three decades. The seven Crown Research Institutes will be replaced by three Public Research Organisations (PROs) focusi...

Reforms to NZ’s science sector - @smcnz.bsky.social expert reaction:
www.sciencemediacentre.co.nz/2025/01/23/r...

Check out our latest study - led by Greer Sanger and co-supervised by Janice Lord - on the Kahukura | NZ Red Admiral preference and performance on Ongaonga | Stinging Nettle (its host plant).

Congratulations Greer!

newzealandecology.org/nzje/3581
@zoologyotago.bsky.social

Call for papers: Entomological collections in public education & outreach activities Initiated by the symposium “Collections Reaching Out”, held as part of the 2024 annual meeting of the Entomological Collections Network (ECN) in Phoenix, Arizona, a new topical collection ...

📢 Initiated at the last @entcollnet.bsky.social annual meeting, this topical collection welcomes contributions about #specimens curated for #public #education & awareness.

⌛️ 31 March 2025
👌 No #APCs
🤗 Open to anyone, including non-members!

#entomology #ento #scicomm #scholcomm #openaccess

Great summary Siobhan, would be great to have BiotaNZ on COL. It would help AoNZ collections management and in services like GlobalNames

Jumping to the top of the world: new salticid spider species in the Southern Alps Spiders. Your reaction to that word might determine whether or not you finish reading this post, but try to bear with me — at least for a little while. While I can accept that most people aren&#821…

Jumping to the top of the mountains. Postgrad Dustin laMont tells us about the new species of jumping spiders found by masters student Robin Long at altitude in the Southern Alps in a new @ecolincnz article for #ECOL608 @LincolnUniNZ . See it at:

t.co/fACBedD7f4

Coming in at the last min to say vote for the Rangatira spider for Bug of the Year 2024!
bugoftheyear.ento.org.nz
You may be persuaded by this lil video made by PhD student Zita Roithmair & sung by the very cool kids at Kaingaroa school on the Chathams.
youtu.be/LUMZ_R7o2aA?...

@bugblokenz.bsky.social

Image of the holotype CARABIDAE: Tarastethus sirvidi Larochelle & Larivière. Landcare Research 2014

Image of the holotype CARABIDAE: Tarastethus sirvidi Larochelle & Larivière. Landcare Research 2014

Marie-Claude Larivière https://bionomia.net/0000-0003-3416-1286 and Andre Larochelle https://bionomia.net/0000-0003-0429-9794 collected the holotype CARABIDAE: Tarastethus sirvidi Larochelle & Larivière in New Zealand https://gbif.org/occurrence/1315638495 #TypeSpecimenToday

Teaching my monster Alfie to identify fungus gnats…

#Science #entomology #mycetophilidae

Photo compilation of all the 20 nominees for Bug of the Year Aotearoa 2024

The Entomology Society of New Zealand has just launched their second annual Bug of the Year! Here are your 20 nominees for 2024! Voting opens on 1st January 💚 🧪🪲🕷️Take a look here:
bugoftheyear.ento.org.nz/2024-bug-of-...

A photograph of a 'giant' springtail - a large, blue, soft-bodied creature with long orange spines around the margin of its dorsal surface.

My giant springtail is the iNaturalist observation of the week! 🧪

Read more about Holacanthella paucispinosa and how I got into soil ecology on the blog post here:
www.inaturalist.org/posts/86178-...