St Valentine's widow spider
In honour of Valentine’s Day this post will look at the wonderful world of courtship in the spider genus Latrodectus, more commonly known as the widow spiders. Readers of my previous post will recall this genus includes species such as the American black widow (Latrodectus mactans), the Australian redback (L. hasseltii) and the New Zealand katipo (L. katipo), all
Margaret Stoddart, Roses, 1920s
In Europe during the 1300s February 14th was thought to be the day when birds paired off to mate. This date was originally an ancient Greco-Roman pagan festival, and was later called St Valentines Day Feast by the Church. Since the 1300s, on February 14th each year, roses (and flowers in general), have been widely accepted as gifts and Saint Valentines Day is now
Monday morning edition – updates expected: The 2026 club rugby Premier, Premier 2 and Women’s finals are upon us. It’s the defending champions Hutt Old Boys Marust against the first round winners and multiple past champions Petone in this coming weekend’s Jubilee Cup final, while Paremata-Plimmerton and Wellington meet in the Hardham VC Memorial Cup...
By Steven White and Scott MacLean The eight finalists have been determined in the Premier, Premier 2 and Women’s grades, while the Tawa Ducks held on to win a three-peat of U85kg Division 1 Paul Potiki Shield titles with a 19-13 win over the Poneke Wanderers in the final. At Kilbirnie Park, the Ducks saw...
