Having discussed the subject with Jacqui and subsequent to my visit from the other side of the planet just over a year ago, meeting leading entomologists and seeing many of your insects, also possessing a number of books on them, a suggestion viewing the situation from afar, is that you need a "Society for Endangered and Special Insects." One of my books says you have 1500 moths, another 2000 and they are usually small, difficult species. You could never cope with all the beetles either except for a select few rare ones. I don't know if you would want to keep Monarchs as a separate organisation.
You have small numbers of species in some orders and which are among the most interesting in the world. There is the Emperor (silk moth) and the Glow Worms (a kind of Gnat) also Wetas, Dragonflies, Damselflies, Stick Insects and Cicadas, not forgetting the native Bee. Where ants and parasitic wasps associate with Butterflies they could be particularly studied with Butterflies themselves as the main insect focus. I find it particularly interesting how you have 3 species of Copper butterfly. In Asia, Coppers are distributed no further east than the Himalalyas - so how did they find their way to NZ?
Ideally you would need to recruit or have some input from specialists in each of the fields. I'm sure people like Dr George Gibbs could cover several of them, since he lectures in entomology in Wellington. With his entomological pedigree he would make a good President of the organisation just like we have had the late Sir Peter Scott and currently Sir David Attenborough. I'm sure the great butterfly finder in the south would join in - Brian Patrick
You have made a marvellous start with the Monarch Trust and know how to run such a society. Initially, it needs just one person with an active and dynamic interest to hold it together amd make it work. Since you are on mainly two islands, perhaps you should have north and south groups. The way other organisations have progressed might help in predicting development. Here we have practically a branch for every county, I think it's something like 37 branches but then our population numbers are quite different from yours.
Well, I must turn my attention to matters more local but I hope this might just help you consider the way forward.
Roger Sutton
Conservation & Reserves Committee Chairman, Somerset, England branch of Butterfly Conservation and former National Recorder for ten years.
