Coleoptera

The Canterbury Plains in the eastern South Island is one of the most modified regions of New Zealand with less than 2% of indigenous vegetation cover remaining. The critically endangered ground beetle Holcaspis brevicula Butcher, a local endemic known only from a small area in that region, is thought to be threatened by the loss and fragmentation of the formerly widespread forest and shrubland habitat. Previously, only the two type specimens, both male, were known to science. From 2000–2005, we conducted a survey for H.

In New Zealand, the European shrub gorse (Ulex europaeus) is becoming the initial post-disturbance shrub, replacing the native myrtaceous manuka (Leptospermum scoparium) and kanuka (Kunzea ericoides) scrub in this role. Change in the dominant vegetation is likely to affect the native invertebrate community.

Previous studies have shown that indigenous beetle diversity reflects indigenous plant diversity in modified and remnant habitats. This study examines the indigenous: introduced relationship at a locality where degraded pasture has been progressively revegetated. Pitfall traps were used to collect beetles from three revegetated sites of different ages (5, 17 and 100 years) and in a coastal Muehlenbeckia habitat on Matiu- Somes Island (25 ha), Wellington Harbour, New Zealand. A total of 78 morphospecies were found over 12 months.

Fragments of kahikatea (Dacrycarpus dacrydioides) forest provide a major opportunity for conservation of indigenous biodiversity in the heavily deforested landscape of the Waikato Basin, New Zealand. However, there is little documented information on what indigenous fauna survives in these fragments.

Gap analysis is a tool that allows conservationists to quantify the effectiveness of protected areas at representing species diversity, but the lack of distribution maps for invertebrates has precluded its application to the world’s most diverse animal groups. Here, we overcome this limitation and conduct a gap analysis, using niche modelling, on the Pterostichini (Coleoptera: Carabidae) of New Zealand, one of the most diverse and most threatened tribes of ground beetles in the nation.