John S. Dugdale’s six decades of fieldwork reshaped New Zealand entomology

John S. Dugdale, a New Zealand entomologist who died on 4 September 2020 at age 86, assembled vast insect collections, established moth life histories and helped modernize the classification of New Zealand Lepidoptera over a career lasting about six decades, according to a memorial account of his work.

Born in Christchurch on 5 April 1934, Dugdale attended Christchurch Cathedral Grammar School and Canterbury University. A holiday job studying forest insects east of Taupo at the Forest Research Institute in Rotorua became a full-time position. During the 1950s and 1960s, he built an extensive institute collection and became a frequently consulted specialist on Lepidoptera, tachinid flies and cicadas.

After joining the DSIR in 1967, Dugdale made a major contribution to the New Zealand Arthropod Collection. His expeditions covered most insect orders and habitats from sea level to the alpine zone, including the Chathams, Poor Knights and Auckland Islands. The New Zealand Lepidoptera drawers now contain about 105,000 specimens, although the memorial states that his own contribution was never counted.

He reared numerous species, establishing life histories and host-plant associations for many taxa, and preserved early stages as vouchers linked to reared adults. His field and biological information was described as crucial to conservation and biosecurity. Collecting extended across the Pacific to the Cook Islands, Tonga, Niue, Fiji, Vanuatu, Western Samoa and New Caledonia between 1975 and 1994. His New Caledonian holdings have been little studied and may contain new taxa, while his notes and correspondence preserve information about Pacific Lepidoptera.

Dugdale’s landmark publication was the 1988 annotated catalogue of New Zealand Lepidoptera, published as volume 14 of Fauna of New Zealand. Research during a year-long London stay in 1980–81 included examining type specimens in the Natural History Museum, making notes and sketches, designating lectotypes and photographing primary types. The catalogue combined taxonomic notes and observations with a key to Lepidoptera families and clarified numerous names that had confused earlier workers.

His specialized studies included New Zealand subantarctic Lepidoptera, larval characters in Geometridae, female genitalia examined in more than 40 species across six insect orders, and an illustrated guide to leaf-litter caterpillars in southern beech forests. The genitalia study supported recognition of the close relationship between swift moths and Mnesarchaeidae. He also revised groups including Tortricidae, Plutellidae and 30 species of New Zealand Hepialidae.

During the 1990s, Dugdale collaborated with biochemists on sex-pheromone research that distinguished cryptic tortricid species barely separable by morphology. His broader approach integrated taxonomy with functional morphology, biogeography, ecology and conservation. Collaboration with Brian Patrick produced a 2000 review of the conservation status of New Zealand Lepidoptera, described in the memorial as more comprehensive than earlier lists of potentially threatened endemic butterflies and moths.

Dugdale was elected a Fellow of the Entomological Society of New Zealand in 2001 and served as its librarian from 1988 to 1996. His notes, drawings, collections and unpublished observations remained available for later researchers. At the time of the memorial’s publication, its author and Alan Emmerson planned to complete Dugdale’s nearly finished revision of the genus Declana. The memorial also records his family life and notes that he continued adding specimens to the collection into old age.

Subject of Research: The scientific career and legacy of New Zealand entomologist John S. Dugdale

Article Title: In memoriam: John S. Dugdale (5 Apr 1934–4 Sep 2020)

Article References: Hoare, R. J. B. (2022). In memoriam: John S. Dugdale (5 Apr 1934–4 Sep 2020). Nota Lepidopterologica, 45, 251-262. https://doi.org/10.3897/nl.45.89540

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/nl.45.89540

Keywords: John S. Dugdale, New Zealand entomology, Lepidoptera taxonomy, insect collecting, New Zealand Arthropod Collection, moth life histories, taxonomic revision, conservation assessment, Pacific fieldwork, memoriam, John, Dugdale