The Hemiandrus jacinda stamps and first day covers. The photo of the ground wētā used was taken by Steve Trewick on Mt Taranaki. Photo / Supplied
The Hemiandrus jacinda stamps and first day covers. The photo of the ground wētā used was taken by Steve Trewick on Mt Taranaki. Photo / Supplied
Jacinda has found herself in a few sticky situations this year, but there's no need to alert Opposition Leader Judith Collins.
This Jacinda is Hemiandrus jacinda, a newly discovered wētā species, described and named by Massey University Manawatū ecologist Professor Steve Trewick.
He was contacted by two Kiwis who producetheir own stamp sets of notable subjects.
Jacinda the wētā now graces limited-edition first-day covers and stamps, which are legal mail tender, but not in general release. The Prime Minister has signed the covers.
Trewick says Hemiandrus jacinda is a "scarlet, long-legged stunner with dainty white feet", and the male of the species is almost as impressive. Yet this creature has rarely been seen and was only this year formally recognised.
It was previously thought the species was only in one part of the Coromandel, but scientists have gradually worked out it is quite widespread across the North Island, "hidden in plain sight".
Trewick says nocturnal jacinda's habitat is places people don't often go to, certainly not at night. Discovering jacinda on Mt Taranaki shows much more widespread the distribution of the species is.
It is expected individuals roost during the day in burrows as with other Hemiandrus ground wētā.
Trewick, who is a professor in evolutionary biology, made a point of using a female name for the species. Traditionally, the scientific community has used a male name, but Trewick says there is no logic to that.
As the wētā is long-legged and red, Jacinda Ardern seemed to be a natural person to name it for. Trewick says when naming a species, one has to think not just about impressing people, but the name needs to be relevant and not be cumbersome to say.
Hard-to-say names can put people off trying to understand biodiversity as it often involves attempting clunky Latin names.
Trewick is considering working with the stamp aficionados to produce more stamps to draw attention to new species and new biodiversity. Put in layperson's terms, biodiversity is short for biological diversity and means the variety of life on Earth.
Steve Trewick with the book Wild Life New Zealand, which he wrote with Mary Morgan-Richards. Morgan-Richards is a professor in evolutionary biology at Massey University. Photo / David Wiltshire
Trewick says what drives him is drawing attention to biodiversity and threats to it.
He wants people to be aware of how unusual New Zealand biology is and that we still don't know everything that is out there.
Compare Aotearoa to the UK and Europe where so much more is known about organisms and diversity because these land masses have been looked at for so long, and there is much shared so many scientists are looking at the same things.
New Zealand is reasonably isolated and has a lot of biodiversity endemic to it, plus a small population and a much smaller population of biologists.
More than the Noah's Ark situation of a male and female of each species is needed to conserve a species because there are degrees of variation within species, he says.
The kākāpō, rather than the wētā, brought Trewick to New Zealand in 1990. He was keen to leave England due to Margaret Thatcher's "appalling politics" and was going to return to Uganda. But then his medic brother, who lives in New Zealand, told him about the flightless parrot.
Trewick now works with mostly invertebrates, not least because there are 200 species of wētā in New Zealand compared with 200 kākāpō.
This cartoon about New Zealand's two most famous Jacindas appeared in a French newspaper. Image / Supplied
It's thought jacinda prefers colder, elevated forests. Rats, stoats and cats are all predators. The predation problem in New Zealand is far worse than people realise, Trewick says. While he likes domestic cats in a domestic environment they are nocturnal predators.
One of the projects he's involved with is studying what he's dubbed the wine wētā, which feeds on newly sprouted vine leaf buds. Marlborough winegrowers are interested in getting a better understanding of the potential pest.
Trewick is trying to work out the costs and benefits of the wētā because it could also be eating other insects that damage the vines.
Trewick has a Hawke's Bay tree wētā named after him, Hemideina trewicki.
