Today I did my monthly biodiversity survey by bike along the Summit Road of the Port Hills of Ōtautahi-Christchurch, NZ. And, along it I found the first ever Canterbury record, and second South Island record, of the toatoa bud gall mite, *Aceria victoriae*. 😀
These native mites make distinctive galls on the NZ native plant, toatoa (*Haloragis erecta*). Yet, after they were described as a species from specimens collected in Wellington in 1956/57, nobody recorded them. That is, until Nicholas Martin found them in Auckland in 2012. Nicholas Martin put out the call for entomologists to look for them, yet only a few more were found, and all in Auckland. I looked and couldn't find them around Christchurch.
Then, last year, Lisa Bennett on
#iNaturalist found them in Wellington and Joseph Knight found them on Otago Peninsula. Inspired by their finds, I was looking carefully for them today and found one plant with the galls.
It's a mystery why they've been so cryptic as their host plant is common. I think it underscores how little we still know about the little creatures that live in NZ with us.
https://www.inaturalist.nz/projects/hunt-for-the-toatoa-bud-gall-mite
#NZ #NaturalHistory #entomology #mites #discovery #CitizenScience
