A boy in a Batman cap holds up a trading card. He is standing behind a table that has trays of insect specimens in them.

Read about Tora, a little boy with a big love for insects. Tora is determined to learn everything about his loved bugs and also to help them. One group of his favourite insects are bees, not the ones that produce native honey, but native bees that are crucial for Aotearoa New Zealand’s ecosystem. Bee inspired, Curator Invertebrates Julia Kasper shows us nature’s six-legged wonders through a child’s eye.Read more

In 2018, Curator Invertebrates Julia Kasper put out a call on Te Papa’s blog looking for enthusiastic code crackers to decipher Hudson’s handwritten collection records with her post, Help crack the insect code. Approximately 80 people contacted Te Papa and asked about more information and how they could help with the research, and now Julia is hoping for more volunteers.Read more

Julia sat on a board walk leaning over a turquoise colour hot pool

Did you know there’s an endemic species of mosquito that exclusively occurs in New Zealand’s thermal pools? We don’t know much about this species, so in October and March, bug expert Julia Kasper made it her mission to find it – a mission that included a harness and a gas monitor, ʻin case of toxic gas eruptions’.Read more

A selection of mounted beetles

Do you love insects and puzzles? This is your chance to make entomology history. We need help matching thousands of specimens to their records from three handwritten books by New Zealand entomologist George Hudson. Curator Terrestrial Invertebrates Julia Kasper explains the details. Read more