Yesterday I saw my 2nd "common" ectemnius, on a roadside near Lincoln, #NZ. This wasp is from Europe, Asia, & North America. It was first found in the southern hemisphere in Feb 2020 in Christchurch by Hannah Nolan, for her undergrad entomology collection at #LincolnUniversityNZ. It triggered a biosecurity response, and she passed the course.

There have now been 30 observations, all in and around Christchurch, as it slowly expands.

https://inaturalist.nz/observations/266870319

Is your day really complete without seeing some velvet worm feet?

I found this excellent wee critter on the coast-to-coast field trip over the weekend for my Biological Diversity course at #LincolnUniversityNZ.

Its name is Ooperipatellus viridimaculatus.

https://inaturalist.nz/observations/265611861

#LincolnUniversityNZ is buzzing with undergraduates again. Orientation has been this week and classes start on Monday. All the enthusiasm is contagious.

I really like these posters that the university has been putting out for students to draw their faces on.

This is my office this week.

I've been helping to teach the "Advanced Field Ecology" 300-level undergraduate course at #LincolnUniversityNZ.

We spend a week in the Southern Alps based at the Boyle Outdoor Education Centre. Students carry out #ecology research projects they planned last year. We've got all sorts of projects happening, from testing possum monitoring methods to seed predation of daisies to the behaviour of NZ's native water spiders.

I just mounted a mōkarakara/NZ magpie moth that I found hit by a car on Friday. It will join the Entomology Collection of #LincolnUniversityNZ where it, and it's DNA, can add to our knowledge of this species.

Currently we've only got mōkarakara around Ōtautahi-Christchurch, but in Nelson and northern NZ, there's now the related Australian species, Nyctmera amicus, and hybrids. I've been looking out for the first amicus to arrive down here.

Another problem solved with sticks!

This was the scene when I was leaving work on Friday. A kitten was mewing from the piping under the carpark. We briefly saw it peaking out. It had probably crawled into a roadside drain and got lost.

The solution was to open the gratings across the carpark and stick branches down them so the kitten could climb out. I must have worked as the carpark stopped mewing.

There's a tiny native mite in NZ, about 1/10 mm long, called Eriophyes totarae, that only feeds on the buds of male tōtara trees.

I learned about them this month when Rene, a PhD student at #LincolnUniversityNZ studying tōtara seed and seedling ecology, asked me what the aborted buds were on a tōtara branch. We looked it up and learned of these tiny mites.

I've since found some in Ōtautahi-Christchurch city.

https://inaturalist.nz/observations/254689722

One of the things I most like about working at a university is being surrounded by smart and *creative* young people.

This is George Gibbs, one of the Master of Science students in our Department of Pest-Management and Conservation at #LincolnUniversityNZ.

And this is George's whiteboard. He's been gradually adding to it over the past year. It's amazing!

George is an entomologist doing a research project on the taxonomy and ecology of NZ's praying mantis.

I loved field trips when I was a student and now it is such a treat to be able to teach them as a lecturer.

The very best way to learn about nature is to get out there and explore.

Here are some photos I just uploaded to Flickr from our field trip earlier this month, to the Boyle River Outdoor Education Centre in the Canterbury Southern Alps of #NZ.

This is part of my second year Field Ecology Methods course at #LincolnUniversityNZ.

I visited the Ashley Dene research farm of #LincolnUniversityNZ on Thursday. Part of the farm is being used for trials on how to keep healthier dairy cows while reducing farm carbon emissions. That includes diverse pastures, scratching posts for the cows (very popular) and fenced off plots of natives and perennial fodder crops.

The highlight was the bamboo stakes in the plantings, all filled with over-wintering 11-spotted #ladybirds.

https://inaturalist.nz/observations/229188869

Spare a thought for the Burns Building pigeons.

For many decades, this 7-storey cliff-like concrete building of #LincolnUniversityNZ has been pigeon central. They'd roost here and foray out into farms.

Damaged by the 2011 earthquakes, Burns is finally being demolished. The new buildings replacing it are (purposefully) pigeon unfriendly.

This evening the pigeons were still roosting on the last small part of the building that remains. They don't know where else to go.

#LincolnUniversityNZ had its third annual pride parade on Wednesday, its biggest yet, and local police showed up in support with their rainbow police car. I like that the local police have a rainbow police car.

Along with other staff, I joined in the march to support the students and then left them to their fun activities.

Here's a potentially interesting thing. Walking back from lecture today, at #LincolnUniversityNZ, I found a flowering cherry tree starting to flower.

In Roy Edwards' book on campus trees, this individual tree is noted as "usually in full flower about mid to late September".

On #iNaturalistNZ there are 86 observations of cherries in flower. Three are from June, none from May.

It's like the climate might be changing?

https://inaturalist.nz/observations/218590197

I saw my first Ectemnius wasp yesterday, at Tārerekautuku/Yarrs Lagoon south of Lincoln, NZ. It's a northern hemisphere wasp that unexpectedly appeared in Ōtautahi-Christchurch in a suburb near the airport in February 2020. An undergraduate student at #LincolnUniversityNZ, Hannah Noley, found it when doing her insect collection for our entomology class. It's since been found south to Leeston and north to Kaiapoi, gradually spreading.

#biosecurity #insects #Hymenoptera

https://inaturalist.nz/observations/203299934

We have a forestry student, Rene, from Germany doing postgrad student here at #LincolnUniversityNZ. Rene has been telling me about how trees are harvested for timber in parts of northern Europe.

That included me learning about these amazing "walking tractor timberjack" machines. They selectively fell trees on variable terrain while limiting the damage to the forest floor.

It's like some sci-fi insect elephant machine.

http://www.theoldrobots.com/images27/john11.JPG
http://www.theoldrobots.com/Walking-Robot2a.html

This was the 1st week of semester 1 classes at #LincolnUniversityNZ and it was a pleasure to be back teaching Biological Diversity to a new group of second-year students.

An amazing thing has been happening. Each year I'm learning more from the students. Why? Each year more students are already hooked on #iNaturalist and know a lot about NZ nature and natural history. This is not coming for schools. It's curiosity empowered by technology connecting people. I love it!

#NZGeographic has a story featuring Tim Curran from #LincolnUniversityNZ who studies plant flammability & green firebreaks.

"the Port Hills are stacked with species that are on the highly-flammable end of Curran’s plant-barbecuing tests—but this may change. On the third day of the fire, Christchurch mayor Phil Mauger told RNZ that there needed to be “a wider community conversation” about whether pine forestry was still a sensible use of the land."

https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/how-plants-can-help-fight-fires-or-spread-them/