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An Auckland moth and butterfly enthusiast was today fined $5000 for importing the eggs of a foreign moth.
Andrew Hollingsworth, a 30-year-old laboratory technician, last month admitted a charge under the Biosecurity Act of buying unauthorised goods.
The charge came after an envelope containing eggs of the scarlet windowed moth was intercepted
at the Auckland International Mail Centre.
In Auckland District Court, Hollingsworth was also ordered to undertake 150 hours of community work and to pay $2000 court costs.
At a hearing last month, the court was told that Hollingsworth had ordered moth and butterfly eggs from a British supplier over the internet five times between April and July 2001.
The species included the pale tussock moth, the giant or royal silkworm moth, the citrus swallowtail butterfly, the scarlet windowed moth and the luna moth.
When Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) officers searched Hollingsworth's home, they found four species of moth and butterfly eggs and caterpillars, alive and dead, including three species of 85 live caterpillars.
None of the species is found in New Zealand.
According to MAF's summary of facts, Hollingsworth denied knowing it was illegal to import the eggs.
But he acknowledged that he was aware that if the caterpillars or moths had escaped, some would have become pests, defoliating trees.
- NZPA
Herald feature: Environment
