#rangipo desert

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#2287 - Lycaena boldenarum - North Island Boulder Copper

Male above, female below. I must have spent an hour trying to photograph these - everytime I got close they'd either take off or be chased off by a ravenous Tiger Beetle.

AKA pepe para riki. Described by the Scottish entomologist Adam White in honour of his first wife, Helen and her sister Frances, nee Bolden. There are three subspecies - boldenarum, caerulea, and ianthina. The latter is critically endangered.

Despite the common name, found on North AND South Island, and actually more widespread on the South Island. It's found in open habitats including grassland, shingle, sand dunes and braided rivers.

The caterpillars feed on Muehlenbeckia axillaris and seem to be gaurded by Monomorium ants.

Rangipo Desert, North island Volcanic Plateau, New Zealand

[inkymink]

Glaciated stratovolcano Ruapehu and volcanic cone Ngauruhoe. Roadside view north of Waiouru. Te Onetapu / Rangipo Desert, Aotearoa. 18 Oct 2022.

[drhoz]

#2282 - Raoulia albosericea - Volcanic Plateau Scabweed

Also known as Psychrophyton, meaning 'cold plant'.

A genus of paper daisy endemic to New Zealand, most often in alpine areas, that grows into dense tussocks. In some species the mounds are large enough that they're known as 'vegetable sheep'.

Rangipo Desert, North Island Volcanic Plateau, New Zealand.

[drhoz]

#2281 - Racomitrium sp.

A grey moss that turns green if wet. It covers much of the ground in the Rangipo Desert. Higher up the volcanoes it's even more common.

I'm hardly the first person to notice - this field trip report from 1986, for example

Above about 1350m Racomitrium lanuginosum became a conspicuous part of the vegetation unable to be completely ignored even by 'higher' botanists.

I'm not sure it's lanuginosum though - some resources say that that's a Northern hemisphere species, common in alpine and tundra habitats on acidic boulder scree and bare rock. Which would fit here too. It's also known as woolly fringemoss, hoary rock-moss and woolly moss. 'lanuginosum' means 'with woolly down'. See also Lanugo - soft woolly hair that covers the fetus of some mammals including humans.

Racomitrium is a widespread genus, worldwide.

[drhoz]

#2280 - Dracophyllum subulatum - Monoao

A heath endemic to the North Island, where it grows in low-lying areas between volcanoes, shrubland, and tussock-grasslands between 100 and 1200m elevation.

It grows up to two meters in height. The flowers may be green or white, and appear between November and March.

Rangipo Desert, North Island Volcanic Plateau, New Zealand

[drhoz]

#2289 - Phalangium opilio - European Harvestman

Other photos from elsewhere on the trip.

AKA brown harvestman and daddy longlegs. They've also been called Dentizacheus minor, Phalangium brevicorne, Phalangium cornutum, Phalangium cornutum and Phalangium longipalpis.

Phalangium might refer to fingers, or possibly refers to the military phalanx, often armed with long pikes. Opilio means 'sheep-slave' and is probably a reference to the stilts that shepards used to walk around on to keep track of their herds. Opiliones is now the name for the entire order.

Anyway - this species is common in Eurasia, and has been introduced to New Zealand, North Africa, and North America. It thrives in human-altered areas, such as croplands and gardens, so seeing this one out in the Rangipo Desert may have been a little unusual, but it was near the Desert Road and a siding where gravel was stockpiled, so...

Like most harvestmen, this special is a nocturnal carnivore and scavenger, and a useful predator of insect eggs in croplands. During the day they hide up among vegetation or on vertical surfaces, preferring warm slightly moist areas, and come down to feed. Young instars might not descend to the ground - possibly to avoid larger harvestmen.

There's also been a recent discovery about harvestman eyes - until now it was thought they only had a single pair, on the spiny tubercle in the third photo - but it turns out they also have vestigial median and lateral eyes.

Rangipo Desert, North Island Volcanic Plateau, New Zealand

[drhoz]

#2288 - Eudonia sabulosella - Sod Webworm

Better photo here, from later in the trip

Previously known as Crambus sabulosellus, Crambus sabulosella, Scoparia sabulosella, and Witlesia sabulosella.

Endemic to New Zealand, including the Chatham Islands, Stewart Island and the Auckland Islands.

Another Eudonia, and one of four species I saw on the trip, but the common name is fairly generic and refers to quite a few turf-feeding caterpillars. This one DOES eat grass, but also feeds on moss and lichen.

Rangipo Desert, North Island Volcanic Desert, New Zealand

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#2284 - Wahlenbergia pygmaea - Pygmy Bluebell

A North Island endemic, common in herbfield, tussock-grassland, and on lava fields and rocks, in montane and alpine areas.

Very similar to the South Island endemic W. albomarginata - some authors consider them the same plant. Until this gets resolved, there are three subspecies - W. pygmaea ssp. pygmaea found along the axial mountains and volcanoes of the North Island, W. pygmaea ssp. drucei on the Taranaki volcano (that volcano is quite young and entirely surrounded by lowlands) and Wahlenbergia pygmaea ssp. tararua which is very rare and limited in distribution.

Rangipo Desert, North Island Volcanic Plateau, New Zealand