Fallen Tōtara of iNaturalist NZ–Mātaki Taiao's Journal

It’s with great sadness that we record the shocking and sudden loss of Stephen Ernest Thorpe on 24^th August 2024, a talented freelance entomologist, biodiversity expert, and volunteer.

Stephen was born in England on 27^th January 1970. He gained an MA (Philosophy) from the University of Auckland in 1997, and became an independent researcher in entomology from 1998.

Stephen has worked at a number of organisations including Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research and the Auckland Museum. From 2008–2011, Stephen was a Research Associate at The University of Auckland. These placements have been largely voluntary, without income, or at best through an occasional contract. Due to these circumstances, he led a frugal and unassuming life.

In recent years, Stephen found a base at the Whau River Catchment Trust offices at the Blockhouse Bay Tennis Club, and it was on the tennis club grounds where he was needlessly taken from us. He worked there nearly every day on a voluntary basis and right until the end actively contributed to the iNaturalist NZ – Mātaki Taiao citizen science and biodiversity recording platform.

The last observation uploaded by Stephen was of a Shortnosed Kauri Weevil (Xenocnema spinipes), where people have also posted comments on his passing. Stephen’s last community identification, likely less than an hour before his death, was of a Bagworm Moth (Lepidoscia heliochares).

As summarised on his profile, Stephen’s contributions to iNaturalist are prolific and exceptional. He posted 28,807 observations of 5,333 species and contributed a whopping 92,461 identifications to the community.

But these figures only tell part of the story. His identification skills were phenomenal, and over a wide range of organisms, not only within his specialist area of insects, but also all sorts of other animals, plants, and fungi. For example, the records made the day before his death included weevils, flies, moths, snails, ferns, and mosses.

As confirmed by many statements of gratitude from our iNat community, Stephen always willingly and freely shared his knowledge with others. He was beloved by numerous amateur entomologists for providing encouragement, useful information, and especially his numerous and prompt identifications. Stephen’s abilities were also well respected by academics, albeit with an occasional prolonged debate following differences of viewpoint. He loved the highly involved taxonomic exchanges with members of the Taxacom mailing list.

In addition to his contributions to iNaturalist and Taxacom, Stephen also made major contributions to Wikispecies, ZooBank, and other taxonomic/biodiversity resources.

He was especially valued by biosecurity agencies for finding and identifying new pest incursions, and monitoring weeds, pathogens and biocontrol agents.

As a reflection of his entomological research contributions, Stephen has had more than a dozen insect species named for him. These include:

Stephen leaves us with a huge legacy, and he prophetically states on his profile that “It is my intention that all my observations on iNaturalist remain there in perpetuity (i.e. after my death).”

Thank you, Stephen, for your incredible mahi – although your contributions will endure, you will be sorely missed.

It is with great sadness that we mark the passing this week of Jacqui Geux, @jacqui-nz. Jacqui once described herself as "only a citizen scientist", to which Canadian wasp taxonomist José Fernández-Triana (@josefernandez-triana) replied "You are as important as any researcher!" Looking back through the breadth and depth of Jacqui's extraordinary contributions to natural history of New Zealand-Aotearoa, I think Jacqui should instead be regarded as one of New Zealand's top naturalists.

A bluebottle washed up at Muriwai Beach. @jacqui-nz shared @tangatawhenua's interest in the Blue Fleet. https://inaturalist.nz/observations/14299491 CC-BY Jacqui Geux

Jacqui has long been a legend on iNaturalist NZ — Mātaki Taiao. With consistent warmth and good humour and humility, and with an exceptional eye for nature, she recorded 21,212 observations of 2,295 species, in just 12 years, and made 1,598 species identifications for other people. That's an extraordinary contribution to our knowledge of NZ nature, and Jacqui is one of the top 10 observers on iNaturalist NZ.

A marvellous photo of discovering a cave weta in a disused manganese mine in the Waitakere Ranges. https://inaturalist.nz/observations/4551956 CC-BY Jacqui Geux

Jacqui's observations are remarkable for their consistent high quality and for the exceptional breadth of Jacqui's curiousity. Jacqui's keen eye has focused on everything from from squid eggs laid on sea weed (https://inaturalist.nz/observations/33638416) to untangling the different species of Tmesipteris fork fern (https://inaturalist.nz/observations/33881529, https://inaturalist.nz/observations/35507533), to a fungus forming a mutualism with scale insects on lancewood (https://inaturalist.nz/observations/8365139), to a transparent amphipod living inside a salp (https://inaturalist.nz/observations/20341167), to fungi being eaten by North Island robins (https://inaturalist.nz/observations/9380399), to undescribed leaf galling mites that feed on Clematis paniculata (https://inaturalist.nz/observations/27799869), to orchids flowering out of season (https://inaturalist.nz/observations/4236015), to "Heaps of these blobs on the mudflats", which turned out to be eggs of the White Bubble Shell Papawera zelandiae (https://inaturalist.nz/observations/8597384), to a caterpillar hitching a ride on Jacqui's backpack (https://inaturalist.nz/observations/17690648), to a mystery illness afflicting kanono, which included Jacqui sending specimens to @cooperj and MPI (https://inaturalist.nz/observations/2696362), to collecting native and exotic water ferns for the Auckland Museum (https://inaturalist.nz/observations/21445952, https://inaturalist.nz/observations/21445824), to spotting rare vagrant butterflies (https://inaturalist.nz/observations/44844748), to the mystery of what tūī are foraging for on the ground (https://inaturalist.nz/observations/15608606). All that (and much, much more) from "only a citizen scientist"!?

A remarkably close photo of a young stoat. https://inaturalist.nz/observations/48594642 CC-BY Jacqui Geux

Jacqui also took delight in engaging with NZ and the world's taxonomists to dive into intricacies of the taxonomy of everything from mosses (https://inaturalist.nz/observations/37386576), to ferns (https://inaturalist.nz/observations/37644368), to banana passionfruits (https://inaturalist.nz/observations/37800294), to crabs (https://inaturalist.nz/observations/3088721), to bluebottles (https://inaturalist.nz/observations/4504569) to Phyllocladus (https://inaturalist.nz/observations/10106381, probably an undescribed species), to name just a few taxa she took interest in. Her curiousity about species, and their natural history, was seemingly unbounded. "The nice thing about the iNaturalist community is that 3 years on from an observation there is still so much to learn. By the way, I wonder if sea turtles found in NZ are checked for stowaway Planes crabs :-)" (https://inaturalist.nz/observations/3088721)

The NZ native moss Achrophyllum quadrifarium. https://inaturalist.nz/observations/21102789 CC-BY Jacqui Geux

Among Jacqui's many observations have been some important and remarkable discoveries. For example, she found one of only four iNat obs of the crane fly, Gynoplistia subfasciata, which is still the only iNat observation from northern NZ (https://inaturalist.nz/observations/34177862). Jacqui has also made the only NZ wild observations on iNaturalist of the hairy Speedwell Veronica calycina, and she deposited specimens at the Auckland Museum Herbarium (https://inaturalist.nz/observations/20149818)

In 2020, Jacqui rescued a moth from a bird bath, which moth expert Robert Hoare (@dr_robert) tentatively identifies as Hierodoris sesioides (https://inaturalist.nz/observations/37839980). "If that is correct, this is a truly momentous find, since sesioides is only known from the unique holotype collected in Esk Forest, Hawkes Bay in 1964!" Jacqui replied, "Thanks for the ID and info, Robert. I'm thrilled to have found such a rare NZ moth (subject to confirmation)! The power of Citizen Science :-) Narrowing down your lengthy search to this location will hopefully help you find and confirm the moth species in the near future. Good luck!"

In 2017 Jacqui photographed a fungus (https://inaturalist.nz/observations/7072259) that turned out to be the first confirmed record of the fungus Gloeocantharellus dingleyae since it was first collected in 1972. Her observation is still the only observation on iNaturalist.

Jacqui was both a marvellous naturalist and a talented photographer, which is a potent combination. Two of her observations were global iNaturalist Observation of the Day. The first one was for her report of a Far Eastern Curlew Numenius madagascariensis, an endangered species, which was the first NZ obs on iNaturalist and is still one of only 20 NZ iNat observations of this species. Her second was for a fun observation of a giant puffball. She was also excited that this kelp photo was chosen for use in a presentation by the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). Jacqui generously licensed all her iNat NZ photos as CC-BY, so everyone is free to use them so long as they acknowledge Jacqui.

A transparent Phronima isopod living in a hollowed out transparent salp, both washed up together on Piha Beach. https://inaturalist.nz/observations/20341167 CC-BY Jacqui Geux

This is all a marvellous legacy to leave behind. Jacqui was contributing knowledge about NZ nature right to the end, upset that she couldn't go far anymore and that her camera was getting too heavy to lift. Her last photo on iNat NZ was a wild garden pansy in flower (https://inaturalist.nz/observations/136406877), which she uploaded on 25 September.

We're all so sorry to hear that Jacqui had to leave us so soon. Our warmest hugs and sincerest sympathies go out to her family. Jacqui will be missed but never forgotten.

Take a moment to remember Jacqui and celebrate her passion for NZ nature by exploring her many observations. If you have iNat memories of Jacqui you'd like to share, please leave them in the comments.

New Zealand's sacred kingfisher, the Kōtare, in a cemetery in Auckland. Jacqui's sense of humour shone through many of her observations. This photo was paired with photos of one of the kingfisher's regurgitated food pellets. https://inaturalist.nz/observations/28103314 CC-BY Jacqui Geux

All of Jacqui's amazing iNat NZ observations

Jacqui's favourite iNat observations

All the many species Jacqui observed, on the tree of life

Jacqui's most popular iNat observations

"Fallen Tōtara of iNaturalist NZ–Mātaki Taiao" project

Obituary on The Herald

We've set up this project to commemorate and celebrate our users on iNaturalist NZ — Mātaki Taiao that have sadly passed away. We made it this week in honour of @jacqui-nz (Jacqui Geux), who sadly passed away this week, but we have added two other fallen giants of iNaturalist NZ — Mātaki Taiao, @tangatawhenua (Kamera Raharaha) and @nzwide (Phil Bendle).

If you're aware of an iNat NZ user that has left us, and should be added to this project, please do let us know, either in the comments below or at help@inaturalist.nz. We would like to honor all of our users passed in journal posts on this project.