All aboard the emergent ark: Biogeography of the dune insect fauna of New Zealand and Chatham Island Thesis
- Author
- Curtis, NR
- Year
- 2011
- Journal / Source
- Unpublished PhD thesis
- Publisher / Organisation
- Lincoln University
- Pages
- 230
- Summary
- Oceanic islands, and the processes by which they are colonised from mainland source populations of flora and fauna, have been a major component of biogeographical research for over half a century. This study addresses the biogeographical relationship between the coastal dune insect fauna of mainland New Zealand (NZ) and those of Chatham Island (CI), an outlying oceanic island some 850 km distant across open ocean. I conducted a comprehensive entomological survey of Coleoptera, Diptera and Hymenoptera from the coastal dune habitat of the NZ east coast and CI. Over 5000 insect samples were collected, consisting of over 650 species. Comparison of the NZ and CI insect communities using the survey data showed that CI has a lower number of insect species per site than NZ. The degree to which the CI diversity was lower approximately equated with the relative dune area available in NZ and CI.