New caddisfly species revealed
Of troglobites and troglophiles
Getting to grips with New Zealand Crustacea
Alien worms - frequent international travellers
Marine Invasives Taxonomic Service - 12 months on
Helobdella europaea with proboscis. Unlike blood-feeding leeches it doesn’t have sharp teeth. The leech is about 15 mm long. (Photo: Geoff Read, NIWA)
NIWA scientists are often the first to detect and identify new alien aquatic organisms after they arrive in New Zealand and establish in our marine and freshwater environments. Many worms are among the animals that frequently arrive on our shores.
For instance, three very different foreign worms have all been found here recently. The freshwater leech Helobdella europaea (pictured) has been found in Taupo and Auckland.
The crustacean taxonomy team. (Photo: Alan Blacklock, NIWA)
NIWA taxonomists are continuing to greatly increase the number of crustacean species known from New Zealand and the Antarctic Ross Sea. The crustacean taxonomy team comprises (from left to right): Kareen Schnabel, Shane Ahyong, Anne-Nina Lörz, Niel Bruce, and Janet Bradford-Grieve.
NIWA’s Marine Invasives Taxonomic Service (MITS) handles all identifications of marine species for MAF Biosecurity New Zealand. MITS has been up and running for just over 12 months now, with a constant flow of incoming samples from port surveys, vessel biofouling, surveillance, and other Biosecurity New Zealand projects. MITS also identifies occasional samples intercepted at the ‘border’ by MAF Quarantine or found by members of the public.
More than 15 000 samples, collected from 15 ports and more than 370 vessels, have been received for identification.
Brian Smith sets up a light trap. (Photo: Stephanie Parkyn, NIWA)
(Inset – an example of the caddisfly catch) (Photo: Brian Smith, NIWA)
NIWA scientists have discovered two species of caddisfly that are new to science, using specially-designed ultraviolet light traps. One species was found in a southern Waikato river, and the other, a microcaddisfly, and literally the size of a pinhead, was found in the Mangaiti Reserve in Hamilton City.
NIWA scientists Aslan Wright-Stow (left) and Mike Scarsbrook (right) in Lost World (Mangapu Cave).(Photo taken by a cave guide from Waitomo Adventures)
In the dark and frigid waters of New Zealand’s caves there lives a diverse range of aquatic invertebrate species that can be classified either as troglobites – animals specially adapted to cave environments – or troglophiles – animals from surface habitats that have an affinity for cave systems.
Recent research by NIWA scientists in cave systems around Waitomo has led to a greater understanding of the distributio
