New Zealand Journal of Zoology abstracts

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Invertebrate survey of coastal habitats and podocarp forest on Ulva Island, Rakiura National Park, New Zealand

Pascale Michel

Helen White

Katharine J. M. Dickinson

Ecology Research Group
and Department of Botany
University of Otago
PO Box 56
Dunedin 9054, New Zealand
pascale.michel@botany.otago.ac.nz

Barbara I. P. Barratt

AgResearch
Private Bag 50034
Mosgiel 9053, New Zealand

Brian M. Fitzgerald

Entomology Section
Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
PO Box 467
Wellington 6140, New Zealand

Peter M. Johns

Invertebrate Zoology
Canterbury Museum
Rolleston Avenue
Christchurch, New Zealand

John Nunn

37 Glendevon Place
Vauxhall
Dunedin 9013, New Zealand

Alan C. Eyles

30 Mahana Road
Paraparaumu Beach 5032, New Zealand

Ian G. Andrew

Institute of Natural Resources
Massey University
Private Bag 11222
Palmerston North 4442, New Zealand

Abstract Inventory of the invertebrate fauna is important to establish taxonomic diversity, abundance and distribution, and hence the conservation of indigenous biodiversity. Invertebrate assemblages have been documented in some broadleaf-podocarp forests and grassland habitats in New Zealand, but not in dense stands of coastal forest or in mature podocarp forest. This survey aimed to provide a taxonomic inventory of terrestrial invertebrates and their habitat associations on Ulva Island (Rakiura National Park, Stewart Island), an off-shore sanctuary of significant conservation value in New Zealand. We systematically documented the invertebrate assemblages collected in ground litter and on tree trunks on the island. The invertebrate specimens identified represented 4 phyla, 6 classes, 25 orders and 62 species. The invertebrate fauna reported in this survey was distinct from those of lowland shrubland and broadleaved-Nothofagus forests on the mainland, but shared species with that reported from another similar off-shore island, Codfish Island (Whenua Hou).

Keywords Arachnida; coastal forest; Gastropoda; litter sampling; Insecta; invertebrate survey; podocarp forest; Rakiura National Park; Stewart Island; tree bark; Ulva Island

Z07062; Online publication date 30 September 2008
Received 17 December 2007; accepted 25 July 2008

New Zealand Journal of Zoology, 2008, Vol. 35: 335–349
0301–4223/08/3504–0335 © The Royal Society of New Zealand 2008

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