Critter Of The Week

Sea butterflies are the flying snails of the sea. They belong to the scientific order Pteropoda - which means 'wing-foot' in Ancient Greek - because of the wing-like 'foot' they flap to swim. Audio

This week's critter is the devil's coach horse beetle, Creophilus oculatus. Despite its ominous common name, this beetle is a helpful member of our corpse fauna - a group that includes all the… Audio

Thursday June 22 (yesterday) was the shortest day of the year so this week's critter is here to celebrate the cold. Antarctic midges are incredible survivors: they can cope with -15 °C temperatures… Audio

This week's critter is the hura te ao gecko, discovered in 2018 among rocky outcrops high in the mountains of North Otago. Audio

This week's critter is the mata or seashore earwig. It lives on coastlines all around Aotearoa and hides under rocks, driftwood and kelp during the day. Audio

This week's critter is the rare and elusive banded Bounty Island spider, Pacificana cockayni. This spider only lives on the Bounty Islands - a remote and rugged collection of rocks far off the east… Audio

This week we're talking about the koekoea or long-tailed cuckoo (Urodynamis taitensis) - an enigmatic native bird with an elegant long tail, a screeching call and some pretty strange breeding habits.

This week's critter is a species of slime mould that looks like ghostly forest coral. The coral slime mould (Ceratiomyxa fruticulosa) is one of our most distinctive and abundant slime moulds. Audio

This week's critter was dubbed 'the dentures of the sea' by the NIWA scientists who discovered it lurking on the ocean floor off the Bay of Islands back in 2009. It might look like your grandma's… Audio

This week's critter is the southern ant (Chelaner antarcticus), the most common and widespread native ant species in Aotearoa. These ants have been known to farm other bugs which they milk for… Audio

This week's critter is a species of stinkhorn fungi that looks (and smells) like the beginning of a zombie apocalypse. The Devil's fingers fungus (Clathrus archeri) sprouts red tentacles out of the… Audio

This week's critter is a crabby geezer who loves a geyser. The NZ vent crab or grumpy Gandalf crab, Gandalfus puia, is an eyeless crustacean that thrives in the toxic, high temperature environment of… Audio

This week's critter lives in the twilight zone of the world's largest ecosystem and is the largest glow-in-the-dark vertebrate in the world. The kitefin shark is a powerful and solitary hunter. Audio

Caddisflies are common to healthy streams and waterways but how not many people know that we also boast some of the only marine caddisflies in the world! Audio

Blue sharks are curious predators found in open oceans throughout the world with the largest numbers here in the Pacific. Audio

This week's critter is a true vagabond - it lives its life blowing around in hot, dry lands, going wherever the wind takes it. Famous (amongst lichenologists) for its powers of resurrection, the… Audio

Last week's Critter of the Week, the tongue louse (Cymothoidae species) has caused a bit of a stir Jesse talks to Mike Dickison about what happened when he attempted to attach our COTW session to the… Audio