Signposts - a blog about Te Ara the Encyclopedia of New Zealand

Two hundred WHAT?????

Sex sells.

This will be obvious to you. It is to us, too, after experiences launching the last two themes of Te Ara.

When Earth, Sea and Sky went live in July 2006, we tried to get people interested in the wonderful array of material on volcanoes, earthquakes and other disasters. No interest. There was a brief flurry about the high incidence of left-footed jandals found on New Zealand beaches. But when we talked about the Kaikoura multivirile flatworm the ether really grew hot. Why? Because a few men must have got jealous. That flat marine object has some 226 penises arranged around a central vagina.

Taking the hint we decided to promote The Bush with stories of sex. We found some goodies.

• Short-tailed bats sing to attract a mate.

• Your common garden snails are hermaphrodite and nestle together each placing a penis in the other’s vagina.

• Stick insects of the genus Acanthoxyla are only female and reproduce without males. The spiny stick insects of the Micrachus genus, however, do have males, but they make love to females who are twice their size and covered in ferocious spines.

• Male cave weta pass packets of sperm to their mates.

• The alpine tiger moth female is wingless, and remains in her cocoon surrounded by eggs. When the larvae hatch, they eat her.
• Kea mate for ten passionate minutes in the winter snows of the mountains.

There was plenty of coverage of these details including a piece in an Australian newspaper which began ‘This is an item about bizarre sexual behaviour in New Zealand, and it involves animals, so you should get the snickering out of the way now…’ Oh we love our Aussie mates (for more see Te Ara on the Australians).

And if you are really interested in what happens once Kiwis (the real ones, that is) mate, take a look here

Te Ara letting their hair down

So we’re off, down a new pathway, the Te Ara blog. It should be a fun rollicking ride. Different members of the Te Ara team will post their thoughts every few days. We hope that you join in.

Why are we doing it?

• To give us a more personal voice. An encyclopedia can be a stern task-master. You have to be accurate. You have to be balanced and fair. Authority can be a heavy cloak. Signposts will allow us to let our hair down a bit, and present a rather more shambolic dishevelled look.
• To signpost things as they happen. We try in Te Ara to present the long view. The entries are meant to be true in 2007, but also to be reasonably accurate in 2011 too. The blog will let us relate Te Ara to the current event. Just last week, for instance, methane-eating bacteria were discovered in Rotorua hot pools – a possible solution to the contribution our burping cows make to global warming. To get some background see our entries on the incredible life in hot springs or the New Zealand dimensions of climate change.
• To signpost some of the hidden byways of Te Ara. The site now has over 1 million words and about 12,000 images. Even I who have read everything about five times sometimes stumble unexpectedly upon little jewels. We’d like to share them.
• Most importantly, to allow you to talk back at us. We want to know what you like about the site and what you do not.

We want to put up flags and see if you like the way they fly. So join the journey and enjoy!