Insects of Mount Cook National Park

Abstract

The insect fauna of Mount Cook National Park was surveyed between 1975 and 1977. All of the major areas of the Park were visited and most vegetation types sampled for insects, although effort was concentrated in the alpine zone. Insects were collected by a variety of techniques including light traps, pitfall traps, sticky traps, malaise traps, sweep nets and hand collecting. Insects associated with plants were investigated in some detail. Plant material was collected and insects reared from it, many pollinators were also taken from flowers. Over 670 species of insects were collected, including at least 10 undescribed species, mainly from the alpine and nival zones. Several northern-most records of southern distributed insects were made.