Ahi Pepe MothNet is a citizen science project that aims to engage students and whānau with moths, nature and science.
Kaiako can visit the website to access free classroom resources, which are written in te reo Māori and English, covering topics such as:
He aha te ki a te pepe? What does the moth eat?
Kei hea au? Where am I?
Whakaaiai - Pollination
The Puka Whakamārama o Te Pepe Nui - Beginners’ Guides to the Macro-Moths are long-format booklets in either te reo Māori or English that fold up and are designed for use by small children as well as adults in the outdoors. These can be downloaded free from the website.
Project Purpose and Background
Ahi Pepe | MothNet and all our project partners, participating schools and champions are working to find out how New Zealand's native moths are getting on, where they are, and how their distributions relate to the natural and changing environment of New Zealand.
Most of our moths are found nowhere else as New Zealand moths have one of the highest rates of endemism for any taxonomic group anywhere in the world. There are over 2000 species of moths and butterflies in New Zealand and they play an important role in the ecosystem as pollinators, and food for our native birds, insects, spiders and reptiles.
Ahi Pepe | MothNet started in late 2015 with a Participatory Science Platform project and four Otago schools. From this pilot study we produced the Beginners' Guide to the Otago Macro Moths - available online.
In 2016, we expanded across the South Island with funding from Unlocking Curious Minds. This allowed us to produce the South Island series of the Puka Whakamārama o Te Pepe Nui - Beginners' Guide to the Macro Moths and expand our science experiment to include 14 schools.
Over the summer of 2017/18, with funding from Unlocking Curious Minds, Biological Heritage National Science Challenge, and Manaaki Whenua - Landcare Research we produced the North Island series of the Puka Whakamārama o Te Pepe Nui - Beginners' Guide to the Macro Moths, expanding our Te Reo Māori science resources.
Click on the link provided above to explore all of the online resources.
