About the authors
Marie-Claude Larivière
I was born and educated in Québec, graduating with a PhD in systematic entomology from McGill University in 1990. For the following two years I did postdoctoral research at Agriculture Canada, Ottawa. In 1992, I moved to New Zealand to work as a full-time Hemiptera biosystematist with Landcare Research. From 1994 to 1997 I led the Biosystematics of New Zealand Land Invertebrates programme, from 1995 to 2005 the development of New Zealand Arthropod Collection’s databasing and digital imaging systems, from 1999 to 2004 the Koiora-BioAssist™ project (Biodiversity Assessment using Information Technology and Taxonomy), and since 2007 to 2010 the Invertebrate Biosystematics research group (Landcare Research, Auckland).
I have been an active member of the Fauna of New Zealand series committee (1994–2004, 2007–present). I am the author of over 90 papers and monographs on the taxonomy, distribution and natural history of Hemiptera and Carabidae (Coleoptera), including seven Fauna of New Zealand contributions (Hemiptera – Heteroptera catalogue, Auchenorrhyncha catalogue, Cixiidae and Pentatomoidea revisions; Carabidae – catalogue, Harpalini revision, synopsis of supraspecific taxa). I have also published on Australian and South Pacific Hemiptera as well as on North and Central American Hemiptera, Orthoptera, and Carabidae. Many of my publications have been written in collaboration with my husband André Larochelle with whom I hope to soon publish new works on New Zealand Hemiptera and Carabidae. In addition, I conduct international cooperative research and lead a number of New Zealand commercial research contracts for the Crown Research Institute Landcare Research. I have a keen interest in biological information technology, especially digital taxonomy, computer imaging, interactive identification, and web-publishing. I maintain electronic information on Hemiptera on The New Zealand Hemiptera website. Since 1992 André and I are actively involved in specialised field inventory, surveying Hemiptera in over 1000 localities, to gain a better understanding of the taxonomy, natural history, and biogeography of New Zealand species.
André Larochelle
I was born and educated in Québec, graduating in 1974 with a Brevet d’Enseignement spécialisé from the Université du Québec à Montréal. I taught ecology at the Collège Bourget, Rigaud, Québec, until 1990. With the encouragement of the late carabid specialist Carl H. Lindroth, I very quickly became interested in the study of ground-beetles. From 1975 to 1979 I was the co-editor of two entomological journals, Cordulia and Bulletin d’inventaire des insectes du Québec. From 1986 to 1992, I was honorary curator to the Lyman Entomological Museum and Research Laboratory, McGill University, Québec. In 1992, I moved to New Zealand to work as a research scientist. Currently, I am a Research Associate with the New Zealand Arthropod Collection, Landcare Research, Auckland. I have written over 400 papers on the distribution, ecology, biology, and dispersal power of North American carabids and other insects (including two handbooks on the Heteroptera of Québec). In 1990 I published “The food of carabid beetles of the world”; in 1993, with Yves Bousquet, I co-authored a “Catalogue of Carabidae of America North of Mexico”; and in 2001 and 2003, with my wife Marie-Claude, we published a “Natural History of the tiger beetles of North America North of Mexico” and “A Natural History of Carabidae” for the same region. My currrent main research interests are the faunistics and taxonomy of New Zealand ground-beetles on which I have co-authored three Fauna of New Zealand contributions (Catalogue of Carabidae, 2001; Revision of tribe Harpalini, 2005; Synopsis of supraspecific taxa, 2007). I also like to provide electronic information on ground-beetles on the internet via The New Zealand Carabidae website. Since 1992, Marie-Claude and I are actively involved in specialised field inventory, surveying carabids in over 1000 localities, to gain a better understanding of the taxonomy, natural history, and biogeography of New Zealand species
Birgit E. Rhode
I was born and educated in Germany where I graduated with a PhD in marine biology from the University of Hamburg in 1987. Between 1980 and 1993 I worked in estuarine and coastal marine ecology (Institute of Hydrology, Island of Norderney, North Sea), studied the developmental morphology of polychaete sense organs, and lectured in general zoology and marine biology (Zoological Institute, Free University of Berlin). In 1993, I moved to New Zealand. Always open to new challenges, I abandoned the marine environment and moved on to drier grounds becoming a Research Assistant to Marie-Claude Larivière's work on New Zealand Hemiptera. I have always been fascinated with photography and structural details, so it was almost inevitable that with the introduction of digital imaging into the research environment I became more and more involved in imaging and graphics work. I am now fulfilling most of the imaging requirements of entomological systematists at Landcare Research.