About the authors
Marie-Claude Larivière
I was born and educated in Québec, graduating with a PhD in systematic entomology from McGill University in 1990. For the following two years I did postdoctoral research at 
Agriculture Canada, Ottawa. In 1992, I moved to New Zealand to work as a full-time Hemiptera biosystematist with Landcare Research. From 1994 to 1997 I led the Biosystematics of New Zealand Land Invertebrates programme, from 1995 to 2005 the development of New Zealand Arthropod Collection’s databasing and digital imaging systems, from 1999 to 2004 the Koiora-BioAssist™ project (Biodiversity Assessment using Information Technology and Taxonomy), and since 2007 to 2010 the Invertebrate Biosystematics research group (Landcare Research, Auckland). I have been an active member of the Fauna of New Zealand series committee (1994–2004, 2007–present). I am the author of over 90 papers and monographs on the taxonomy, distribution and natural history of Hemiptera and Carabidae (Coleoptera), including seven Fauna of New Zealand contributions (Hemiptera – Heteroptera catalogue, Auchenorrhyncha catalogue, Cixiidae and Pentatomoidea revisions; Carabidae – catalogue, Harpalini revision, synopsis of supraspecific taxa). I have also published on Australian and South Pacific Hemiptera as well as on North and Central American Hemiptera, Orthoptera, and Carabidae. Many of my publications have been written in collaboration with my husband André Larochelle with whom I hope to soon publish new works on New Zealand Hemiptera and Carabidae. In addition, I conduct international cooperative research and lead a number of New Zealand commercial research contracts for the Crown Research Institute Landcare Research. I have a keen interest in biological information technology, especially digital taxonomy, computer imaging, interactive identification, and web-publishing. I maintain electronic information on Hemiptera on The New Zealand Hemiptera website. Since 1992 André and I are actively involved in specialised field inventory, surveying Hemiptera in over 1000 localities, to gain a better understanding of the taxonomy, natural history, and biogeography of New Zealand species.
Birgit E. Rhode
I was born and educated in Germany where I graduated with a PhD in marine biology from the University of Hamburg in 1987. Between 1980 and 1993 I worked in estuarine and coastal marine ecology (Institute of Hydrology, Island of Norderney, North Sea), studied the developmental morphology of polychaete sense organs, and lectured in general zoology and marine biology (Zoological Institute, Free University of Berlin). In 1993, I moved to New Zealand. Always open to new challenges, I abandoned the marine environment and moved on to drier grounds becoming a Research Assistant to Marie-Claude Larivière's work on New Zealand Hemiptera. I have always been fascinated with photography and structural details, so it was almost inevitable that with the introduction of digital imaging into the research environment I became more and more involved in imaging and graphics work. I am now fulfilling most of the imaging requirements of entomological systematists at Landcare Research.