The original mission of observing the garden at night was to see moths. This one threw itself violently at the garden shed where the torchlight fell.
Resting on an understorey plant. At a quick glance, I initially thought it was a bird dropping. The white hairs give it the appearance of being infected with an entomopathogenic fungi, maybe as a deterrent to predators...? Definitely the most amazing cerambycid I've ever seen!
Update: this species finally has a name! The paper naming and describing it can be freely downloaded from here: https://doi.org/10.54102/ajt.iv1x5
NEW ZEALAND AK
Site: 129 Laingholm Drive, Number: 00013
Trap: 1A-3B
Date: 19.VI.2007
Coll. J.T. Pusateri
Identification: Uropoda thorpei Kontschán, 2012.
Maungatautari, litter MJ01, 26 Apr 2011, C.H. Watts.
Identification: Calotrachytes fimbriatipes (Michael, 1908). ID based on the literature (Michael, 1908).
REFERENCES
Michael, A.D. 1908: Unrecorded Acari from New Zealand. Journal of the Linnean Society of London, zoology, 30: 134-149, plates 17-21. doi: 10.1111/j.1096-3642.1908.tb02128.x [See p. 147, and 'Pl. 21. figs. 26-28 & P1.20. fig. 24'; original reference for 'Trachynotus fimbriatipes, sp. n.']
Walking through broom on the edge of the dog park and it brushed into my arm.
specimen collected
beaten from indeterminate ornamental variegated shrub 2
Growing on a sheep's skull. Head of fungus about 0.6 mm diameter.
This was a dragon fly found on a small vine of some sort in a plot for the Linwood College Ecoblitz set up in the empty section of what is proposed to be the new schools entrance.