BAD for NZ butterflies

PRESS RELEASE
for immediate release

BAD for NZ butterflies

Concern for New Zealand’s endemic butterflies has stirred members of the Monarch Butterfly NZ Trust to announce 10 October as Butterfly Awareness Day.

Volunteers in many parts of the country will be on hand to help the public identify our endemic butterflies such as the Red Admiral and Forest Ringlet, and advise what can be done to help ensure these beauties don’t disappear.

“There are many organisations working to protect kiwi, kokako and even giant snails,” said spokesperson Jacqui Knight, “but we have very few species of butterflies and they were becoming less known each year.”

South Island lepidopterist Brian Patrick is right behind the project. He talks of a tiny purple copper butterfly which exists only in one coastal car-park.
“It’s teetering on the edge of survival,” he said. “The plight of our butterfly fauna is heavily dependent on human respect if they are to survive and thrive. Several butterflies are threatened with extinction even before they are described.”

According to Knight, NZ’s Red Admiral is another classic example.
“World-renowned lepidopterist Nigel Venters says that the NZ Red Admiral, Bassaris gonerilla, known as Kahukura to the Maori, is the most beautiful in the world,” she said. “But in many places now you don’t see it any more although it was once common all over the country. Admirals breed on stinging nettle–and gardeners and developers think this is a ‘nasty weed’ to be eradicated.”

People are also keen to know how to help the native Monarch butterfly in their own garden, finding out more about its host plants and a range of plants to provide nectar to butterflies and bees.

“We have rolled our butterfly fauna back to the mountains and far-flung places,” added Patrick. “so that now many once familiar species are no longer found in cities, towns or surrounding countryside.”

“Sadly, young New Zealanders are no longer familiar with even our commonest butterflies because of the elimination of them from our cities, towns and countryside. Good on the Monarch Trust for taking up this initiative.”
Locations of Butterfly Awareness Days, with key contact people, are listed below. There will be activities for children, and hopefully live specimens on display.

ENDS

© Scoop Media