Selwyn_Times: June 21, 2023

Selwyn Times Wednesday June 21 2023
14
NEWS
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
Bug man swaps
backyard critters
for tropical island
STUDY: Mike Bowie said looking at an insect under a
microscope is like going into another world.
Below – the nocturnal brown centipede can reach 18mm
to 30mm in length and has 15 pairs of legs.
• By Susan Sandys
ENTOMOLOGIST Mike Bowie
is bidding farewell to readers of
his weekly Selwyn Times column,
Backyard Critters, as he heads off
to work overseas.
The 65-year-old has regaled
readers with the many strange
and wonderful invertebrates he
has found in his Lincoln backyard
since 2017.
His column has featured
the New Zealand praying
mantis, which catches its prey
by firing out its front legs at
“lightning speed”; the “stealthily
lurking” white-tailed spider; the
ubiquitous but elusive cave weta;
a species of hoverfly, which darts
between flowers “like miniature
hummingbirds”; the brown
centipede, which has 30 legs and
eats worms; an endemic species
of moth with “long mane-like
hair” and striped legs; and the
“beautiful” blue spotted hawker,
a large dragonfly with a wingspan
of about 90mm.
Writing about one or two
arthropods a week, Bowie has
altogether covered 250 species in
the column.
Some might think that is a
lot of different creepy crawlies
for one person to find in their
backyard – but Bowie said it’s not
unusual in a diverse garden.
“I have a lot of natives and, if
you plant natives, there’s more
species that are going to be living
on those native hosts.”
He has in fact recorded many
more invertebrates at his section.
Altogether he has identified
about 451, but has only written
about the ones he could gather
information on.
“Some of them won’t have
even been identified, so you can’t
have ecological information on
something that doesn’t have a
INSECTS: Contrary to their name, cave weta live in many
places, including most backyard gardens.
Below – the blue spotted hawker or lancer dragonfly is
about 56-59mm long with a wingspan of 90mm.
name. I have been amazed by the
things that actually show up.”
Most backyards have many
more species than people see.
For example, the cave weta
lives in most backyards. It likes
cool, dark, moist places and only
comes out to feed or look for a
mate at night.
Bowie said his interest in nature
began while he was growing
up on a farm at Otaio between
Waimate and Timaru.
Ultimately it was the wonder of
seeing insects under a microscope
during a Timaru Boys’ High
field trip to Lincoln College (now
Lincoln University) which drew
him into the profession.
“It’s like going into another
world when looking at their
intricate structures under high
magnification.”
Bowie and his wife Sue are
moving to Rarotonga for up to
three years where he will take up
a renewable one-year tenure as an
entomologist at the Cook Islands’
Ministry of Agriculture.
He plans to return home to
Lincoln where he is an honorary
lecturer at the university.
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