Biodiversity of terrestrial invertebrates in Christchurch City: a report for the Christchurch City Council

Abstract

To date most of the efforts in preservation and restoration have focused on higher plants and birds, whereas in terms of species diversity, it is widely understood that most biodiversity lies in the invertebrates and micro-organisms. There are excellent reasons for beginning a programme on biodiversity conservation that is dependent on public support, with flowering plants and birds. These groups of organisms already have a favourable public profile and are generally well known to citizens and ratepayers. Plants also form the ecological basis on which most animal life ultimately depends, so conserving plant biodiversity is a prerequisite for preserving animal biodiversity. Having made an excellent start with the preservation of these larger, generally well loved, organisms, it is time to expand the public perception of biodiversity conservation to include some less well known and perhaps, less well liked organisms. The objective of the current report is to provide background information on selected, native, terrestrial invertebrates found in Christchurch, for the use in education and profile raising. We have attempted to use examples from a wide range of mainly insect groups that are potentially significant in many different ways and have different ecological roles. We have chosen species that are very common everyday species and others that are rare or endangered species. The material is arranged into five broad ecosystems based categories that have been used in recent Christchurch City Council publications, i.e. Port Hills habitats, Welands and Streamside habitats, Avon-Heathcote Estuary and Coastal habitats, Dry Grassland habitats, and Urban and Suburban habitats.