Greenfingers is the proud sponsor of Butterfly Creek’s Wetapunga Breeding Programme and the ‘Bugs About’ exhibit.

Greenfingers are sponsoring the exhibit because we care about the environment and want to make these iconic Kiwi creatures accessible for all New Zealanders to see. Interestingly, the wetapunga is also one of New Zealand’s earliest producers of compost!

click here for the most recent update

Greenfingers Bugs about at Butterfly Creek

Butterfly Creek is home to the only captive rear and release wetapunga programme in the world, which was opened with fanfare by the Associate Minister for Conservation, Kate Wilkinson.

"The mighty wetapunga, Maori for ‘god of ugly things’ has been a key part of our eco-system for millennia. The wetapunga species is usually only found on Little Barrier Island and its numbers have been modest in recent years."

Greenfingers is helping widen the horizons Associate Minister for Conservation, Hon. Kate Wilkinson of our younger generations and enable them to understand and care about our living world. Greenfingers worked in partnership with Butterfly Creek and the Department of Conservation, to create a sustainable programme to breed wetapunga for translocation to Little Barrier and new habitats off Auckland’s coastline - Motuora Island and Tiritiri Matangi Island.

DoC granted Butterfly Creek the unique captive rear and release programme for the wetapunga which is led by Paul Barrett, entomologist at Butterfly Creek, who oversees the country’s only display of the mighty wetapunga.

“Since the Butterfly Creek Wetapunga Breeding Programme started, there have been numerous eggs hatched which have grown into healthy adults,” said Barrett.

Greenfingers enjoys its strong community role and makes it easier for people to be green.

By enabling people to recycle their garden waste the company creates 30,000 tonnes of compost each year. This is organic material that would otherwise go out with the rubbish and be dumped in landfill.

Conservation programmes such as the Butterfly Creek’s Wetapunga Breeding Programme have brightened the future of this stately bug. And the success of this conservation programme is due to strong partnership between Butterfly Creek, Greenfingers and DoC.

Campbell Live shared in the excitement of the launch of Greenfingers’ Bugs About exhibit by sending a film crew to Butterfly Creek to talk to capture footage of these magnifi cent creatures and interview Paul Barrett, about the breeding programme.

Watch out! Baby bugs about!

Autumn 2010

Butterfly Creek is celebrating some new arrivals - 181 of them in fact!

Butterfly Creek’s wetapunga (giant weta) breeding programme has had its first success with a batch of baby wetapunga. So far 181 hatchlings have emerged and there may be more to come. This is a significant achievement as it is the first time this species has been bred in captivity in any large scale.

Paul Barrett, head of the programme, explains “Butterfly Creek staff have worked hard to re-create the ideal breeding environment for the wetapunga and were excited to see them eventually displaying all the correct behaviour such as burying their ovipositors deep in the soil. We were hopeful breeding would occur as all the indications were that the wetapunga were mating successfully and the females developing eggs”

After this stage it’s a long waiting game with an incubation period of 6 to 11 months. The hatchlings then squirm their way up through the soil to the surface. They hatch from the egg in the form of a pre-nymph, work their way up to the surface and then moult into the true nymph. Once they have hardened their skin they can then run and jump. At this stage they look like a tiny replica of the adult insect.

Currently the hatchlings are about the size of a fingernail. They will take around 12 months to grow to full adult size and weight. They are one of the world’s heaviest insects, weighing as much as a sparrow!

The focus for staff now is to meet the needs of these precious wee ones.

“They are lapping up the protein foods offered to them in the form of insects and fish food. They also get algae, green leaves, dead leaves, flowers and new shoots. We keep the temperature as close to that experienced on Little Barrier, Hauturu Island. It doesn’t get that hot over there in the forest so we keep them in an air-conditioned room which is maintained at 9 to 20 degrees Celsius”, Mr Barrett explains.

Butterfly Creek and the programme’s key sponsor, garden waste specialists Greenfingers, are delighted with the success and hope this will be the first of many batches.

Wetapunga are an endangered species, found only on Little Barrier Island. One of the key aims of the joint programme between Butterfly Creek and the Department of Conservation is to establish young wetapunga on other island retreats. Chris Green from the Department is working closely with the Motuora Restoration Society and the Supporters of Tiritiri Matangi Island to arrange releases of the wetapunga on Motuora and Tiritiri Islands within the next year. DOC and the community groups involved are very excited about the future of giant weta due to the new arrivals.

“This will provide a significant boost to the security of this iconic giant weta species, thanks to the highly successful breeding programme at Butterfly Creek”.

Bugs About Wetapunga Update!

Winter 2010

The young wetapunga hatched earlier this year as part of the Greenfingers Bugs About Wetapunga breeding programme are doing very well and getting more robust.

Over 100 babies have survived to date, each living in their own container. At the hatchling stage they were around 6-7mm long and some are now up to 20mm.

Soon we will be able to determine how many boys and girls we have. It is hoped that some will be ready for release this coming spring if their growth continues at this cracking pace, which will be the first time captive bred wetapunga have been released into the wild. We’ve got all our fingers (and antennaes) crossed for that!