Quick Dips

Beetling Around the Sounds

Lincoln University entomologist John Marris is hunting the little known Cook Strait click beetle, which has lost the ability to click and seems to be fast disappearing from its Cook Strait island habitats.

Assisted by money from the Lottery Grants Board, Marris is trying to establish how endangered the native beetle is. It's a tricky project, as the beetles are very hard to find.

It is thought they were once widespread throughout New Zealand, but they are now restricted to four outer islands of the Marlborough Sounds. John became interested in the beetle's fate on a recent trip to North Brother Island, outside Tory Channel.

"I knew the beetle had been recorded there in the past and I expected to find it. I couldn't find it at all so that raised alarm bells because it's one of New Zealand's few protected insect species. North Brother Island is predator-free, so it's difficult to know why they've disappeared."

Some have been found on Stephen's Island during his study, but past collection records suggest the population has dwindled since early this century.

The Cook Strait click beetle is large -- up to 25 millimetres long --  flightless and, John says, slow and ponderous.

He hopes his research will give some certainty to the beetles' future.

"Life will still go on without click beetles, but once they're gone, they're gone forever. We're trying to maintain the integrity of native New Zealand animals that were here before we introduced all the nasties."