Southern View: January 23, 2018

4 Tuesday January 23 2018
Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi
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SOUTHERN VIEW
Local
News
Now
Fire rages, homes at risk
Dream job of keeping abreast of bugs
BRIAN PATRICK loves bugs.
The Woolston entomologist
and ecologist won’t leave home
without a jar in his pocket just in
case he spots a rare specimen.
Creepy crawlies aren’t
everyone’s favourite thing,
but Mr Patrick, who works for
Wildlands Consultants, is in
the middle of his dream job,
collecting insects at the Botanic
Gardens.
Mr Patrick has been tasked
by the city council’s parks conservation
team with a summer
survey of the small fauna living
in the central city park, including
butterflies, moths, cicadas,
grasshoppers, weta, crickets,
praying mantis, cockroaches,
stick insects, beetles, dragonflies,
bees and flies.
He believes the survey is a trailblazer
and shows that a botanic
gardens is full of exciting wildlife.
“This is a New Zealand first.
Nobody has ever been brave
enough to do this before. I’ve
already found plenty of unusual
species. The native brooms have
been yielding a lot of surprises,
especially interesting caterpillars.”
The work, which he is carrying
out during the day and at night,
is mainly funded by Friends
of the Christchurch Botanic
Gardens.
Visitors to the gardens have
been fascinated to see him bashing
bushes, walking around with
a net, and crawling on his hands
and knees on the ground.
At night, usually between
10pm and midnight, he uses a
160 watt UV light and a white
sheet to trap moths and butterflies
and other nocturnal insects.
After he finishes his survey
in late summer he will present
the gardens with a pinned and
named collection of dried insects
in entomological boxes.
He will explain the significance
of his findings including noting
which are new, threatened or
endangered species.
Botanic Gardens curator John
Clemens said the survey results
will provide valuable information
NATURE: If
you are in
the Botanic
Gardens keep
an eye out for
Woolston’s
Brian Patrick
who is
surveying
bugs.
on plants the insects are associating
with which will help guide
future decisions.
“By improving our plant collection
we can also look after the
insect life. We’re intrigued to see
what Brian will come up with
about the ecology of the gardens,”
he said.
Mr Patrick is an expert on the
order lepidoptera, a large group
of insects that includes moths
and butterflies.
He started collecting bugs as a
10-year-old living in Invercargill
and still has records of his first
trip on January 1, 1970, when he
began a database.
Since then he has carried out
about 3770 bug hunting trips.
Why does he love insects so
much?
“I think I’m driven by patterns.
I like the striking patterns on
their wings, the distribution
patterns, and patterns in the way
they interact with the plants they
feed on. I’m a mathematically
trained person so that makes it
really rewarding when you come
to predictions based on your
observations.”
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