Selwyn Times: September 08, 2021

Selwyn Times Wednesday September 8 2021
18
NEWS
COSMETIC CHANGES are in
play as the Prebbleton Rugby
Club aims to add a senior
women’s team to its ranks
through support from a new
fundraising initiative.
Prebbleton’s premier men’s side
could not prevent Southbridge
defending the coveted Coleman
Shield, but two months later the
club is celebrating a significant
off-field victory.
The Ellesmere
sub union member
is among 15
clubs nationwide
to receive $10,000
worth of products
and materials
from New
Zealand Rugby
sponsor Bunnings
Warehouse
to improve facilities.
Prebbleton based their
application on making the club
more appealing to female players
as they aim to enter a squad
in the Metro competition next
season.
“We have really good fields,
good people in the club that
make it tick along but in order
to get that female participation
up and potentially get a senior
women’s team in, we really need
to give the changing rooms a
FACELIFT: The Prebbleton Rugby Club’s changing rooms
at Prebbleton Domain will be upgraded thanks to a new
funding initiative.
bit of love,” committee member
Hayden Garbutt said.
“The facilities are pretty barebones,
pretty simplistic. We’re
going to looking to do up the
showers and toilets. Instead of
having a bench seat in the room
we’d like to make it more inviting.”
If budgets allow, the changing
sheds at Prebbleton Domain
may have partitioned seats with
areas to store gear and hang
jerseys.
Garbutt was delighted a short
video presentation swayed the
judging panel.
“We were so rapt, considering
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
Senior women’s team the
goal of rugby facility upgrade
Hayden
Garbutt
it’s a nationwide comp. We’ll
stretch the money as far as we
can,” he said.
Cheviot was the other Canterbury
club to lodge a successful
application to Bunnings Assist
through a tough selection process.
“Selecting the successful clubs
was especially difficult not just
because of the quantity, but all
the clubs that entered were really
worthy applicants,” NZR general
manager community rugby Steve
Lancaster said.
“We’re looking forward to
seeing how the successful clubs
bring their projects to life.”
BACKYARD CRITTERS
Mike Bowie is an ecologist who specialises in
entomology (insects and other invertebrates). Each
week he introduces a new species found in his
backyard at Lincoln. His column aims to raise public
awareness of biodiversity, the variety of living things
around us. Check out the full list of invertebrates
found at www.inaturalist.org/projects/backyardbiodiversity-bugs-in-my-lincoln-section
Greenhouse thrip problematic
MOST THRIPS are very small
and slim insects (1mm long) that
can be seen with the naked eye
but are best appreciated under a
microscope.
Thrips can vary in colour from
pale yellow to black. Adults have
two pairs of narrow wings with
hairs along the edges resembling
feathers.
When not in use, wings are
folded away on the abdomen.
Young larvae don’t have wings,
but mature stages of larvae may
have wing buds.
More than 6150 thrips species
are known worldwide. New
Zealand has about 140 species,
with 50 of these being endemic
(not recorded elsewhere).
Many thrips are herbivores,
piercing plant tissues to suck the
contents.
Other thrips species eat fungi,
pollen and some are predators of
mites and thrips.
In New Zealand three introduced
species, the onion thrips
(Thrips tabaci), the western
flower thrips (Frankliniella occidentalis)
and the greenhouse
thrips (Heliothrips haemorrhoidalis)
are the most problematic
species. The latter species is a
pest of smooth skinned kiwifruit
varieties and avocado leaves and
fruit.
The specimen of greenhouse
thrips I found at home was
on native mistletoe Ileostylus
micranthus causing considerable
discolouration of leaves.
This is often a tell-tail symptom
of its presence.
PEST:
The presence
of a thrip can
be determined
through
discolouration
of leaves.
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