Insect conservation in New Zealand: An historical perspective

Abstract

The exciting prospect of discovering New Zealand's untapped insect fauna was incentive enough for the early collectors of natural history specimens. Investigation of the fauna began with Joseph Banks on the Endeavour in 1769 and was continued by a devoted group of eighteenth century naturalists who occasionally voiced their concern at the rate of destruction and modification of the indigenous ecosystems as European Imperialism fuelled the development of agriculture for the economic base of the new colony. Although records are sparse, at least two early entomologists expressed their opinions in the early twentieth century. G.V. Hudson aired his concern about the dwindling numbers of native insects in a Presidential Address to the Wellington Philosophical Society (Hudson 1900) and later recollected that: 'every summer throughout the eighties great fires raged on the hills around Wellington and the air was thick with smoke for days together'. The concept of preserving native fauna was then in the minds of very few and those who protested at the reckless destruction of the forest were regarded as cranks. (Hudson 1950, pp. 161-162). Back 'home' in Britain, another entomologist, Commander James J. Walker (1921) in his presidential address to the Entomological Society of London, also drew attention to the potential plight of New Zealand's insect fauna when, after discussing the rich and endemic attributes of the flora that were being lost both to agriculture and weed invasion, he said that 'the disastrous effect on all forms of life of this destruction and replacement (necessitate) immediate and thorough research in what still remains of the endemic animal life of New Zealand, before many of its most interesting forms are lost forever.' However, nothing was done and no consideration was given to the need to conserve invertebrates. Instead, it was the ornithologists who paved the way for the first conservation ethic as they focussed on New Zealand's unusual and dominant bird life. This began with the influential politician, Thomas Potts, who raised awareness for conservation in the 1850s and was eventually in part responsible for the declaration of island reserves for Resolution, Secretary, Little Barrier, and Kapiti islands, gazetted between 1891 and 1897 (Young 2004). Conservation action on behalf of invertebrates did not occur despite increasing knowledge of their uniqueness and significance in understanding southern biogeography issues (Gibbs 2006).