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In May 2010 the large white butterfly, Pieris brassicae L. (Lepidoptera: Pieridae), was discovered to have established in New Zealand. It is a Palearctic species that—due to its wide host plant range within the Brassicaceae—was regarded as a risk to New Zealand's native brassicas. New Zealand has 83 native species of Brassicaceae including 81 that are endemic, and many are threatened by both habitat loss and herbivory by other organisms. Initially a program was implemented to slow its spread, then an eradication attempt commenced in November 2012. The P. brassicae population was distributed over an area of approximately 100 km2 primarily in urban residential gardens. The eradication attempt involved promoting public engagement and reports of sightings, including offering a bounty for a two week period, systematically searching gardens for P. brassicae and its host plants, removing host plants, ground-based spraying of insecticide to kill eggs and larvae, searching for pupae, capturing adults with nets, and augmenting natural enemy populations. The attempt was supported by research that helped to progressively refine the eradication strategy and evaluate its performance. The last New Zealand detection of P. brassicae occurred on 16 December 2014, the eradication program ceased on 4 June 2016 and P. brassicae was officially declared eradicated from New Zealand on 22 November 2016, 6.5 years after it was first detected and 4 years after the eradication attempt commenced. This is the first species of butterfly ever to have been eradicated worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present the first report of an exotic snail from Takapourewa (also known as Stephens Island), New Zealand: Oxychilus alliarius (J.S. Miller, 1822), the garlic snail (Stylommatophora: Oxychilidae). This species has been introduced worldwide; it is widespread in New Zealand, where it is potentially problematic to the native fauna. We also revise the species’ distribution in New Zealand based on historical material deposited in the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Restoration efforts around New Zealand provide safe havens for native species that have been seriously compromised since the arrival of people and introduced mammals approximately 750 yrs ago. Maungatautari in the Waikato is currently the largest area of almost (except for mice) mammal-free estate on the New Zealand mainland. We examined attributes, such as beetle size variation, dispersal ability and trophic structure, of the beetle community at Maungatautari and compared it with the fossil beetle assemblage from two central North Island sites where forest was preserved under up to 2 m of tephra and volcanic ash from the Taupo eruption (232 ± 5 AD (1718 ± 5 cal. yr BP)) prior to the introduction of mammals. A total of 334 fossil, and 206 extant, beetle species were found. No difference was observed between the trophic composition and dispersal ability of taxa within the beetle communities sampled from pre-mammal ecosystem compared with Maungatautari. Greater numbers of large species were found at Maungatautari compared to the two fossil sites. However, this disguised the loss of several large flightless ground-dwelling weevil species that were found as fossils but are now considered extinct. Surprisingly, only 1.2% of the fossil beetle species identified are now thought to be extinct. The fossil beetle assemblages from the central North Island are invaluable datasets that describe the pre-mammal beetle fauna and provide an important benchmark for assessing restoration outcomes in New Zealand forest ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Establishing new populations by transferring founder individuals from source populations has been effective for managing the recovery of many threatened species including some weta (Orthoptera: Anostostomatidae) in New Zealand. These large-bodied flightless insects are ‘flagship species’ for insect conservation in New Zealand and many are rare or threatened. The declining abundance of most weta species, particularly giant weta, can be attributed to the introduction of mammalian predators, habitat destruction, and habitat modification by introduced mammalian browsers. New populations of some weta have been established in locations, particularly on islands, where these threats have been eliminated or severely reduced in order to reduce the risk of extinction. Some populations were established to provide food for endemic vertebrates, ecosystem restoration and ready access for the general public. We illustrate how methods for both transferring weta and monitoring them have become more sophisticated by using a series of case studies. Other transfers of weta not included in the case studies are also summarised. We conclude by re-iterating the importance of documenting the transfer and post-release monitoring for all insect transfers, both for biogeographical reasons and to provide information to improve future transfers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]