Boy beats bug experts to rare find

Alex Edwards, 6, spotted the 'chafer' beetle. Picture / Chris Rickards

A sharp-eyed 6-year-old has found a beetle not seen for at least 50 years, upstaging a posse of serious entomologists on a beetle hunt.

Alex Edwards was with his father, Eric, and a group of Dunedin entomologists, including Brian Patrick from Otago Museum, when he spotted the metallic yellow and green "chafer" beetle in a stream amid thick tussock in the Umbrella Mountains about half way between Queenstown and Dunedin.

"It was in a puddle lying dead so I went and showed Dad," Alex said yesterday. "I knew I was looking for a certain kind of beetle with yellow stripes on it and some green on it too."

Mr Patrick said the group of around 11 adult bug enthusiasts didn't mind being upstaged by a child.

"What a thrill. We were lucky to find any at all," he said. "There were 11 of us looking and we'd found nothing, and the next minute we heard Alex say, 'look at what I found'."

Entomologists knew the secretive beetle, which emerges from the soil for only a few days in December to eat, mate and lay eggs before dying, was found in a few isolated spots within the Garvie-Umbrella range.

It is flightless and restricted to alpine areas. Its population is unknown. It was first discovered in 1895 but wasn't seen again until the 1950s.

"But this habitat is a new locality and gives us hope the beetle is thriving in at least a couple of places," Mr Patrick said.

A live one was found by the group after further searching along with a dozen dead specimens.

Mr Patrick said that was probably because of a "mass emergence" of the insects for mating.

Alex's father, a Department of Conservation staffer, said the group had been about to give up the search and move to another area when he heard Alex call out.

"He's pretty sharp-eyed," Mr Edwards said.

The find also confirmed the area around the Waikaia Valley near the Kopuwai conservation area as a treasure-trove of native flora and fauna.

"It's an exciting find for so many reasons," he said.

Alex's beetle will go on display at Otago Museum.