About the Author

GEORGE GIBBS is a retired university lecturer with a passion for New Zealand's natural history. From an impeccable background for a career in entomology as the grandson of George Vernon Hudson (1867-1946), one of the pioneers in the study of our endemic insect fauna, and fostered by his parents with recreational interests in the mountains, George continued with studies at Victoria University and obtained a PhD in insect ecology from the University of Sydney. He has pursued a career researching butterflies, moths and weta, but always with the urge to look more deeply into their evolutionary history. His interest in the tiny 'jaw-moths' and their biogeography has led him to Patagonia, South Africa, New Caledonia and Australia. He has published four books on New Zealand insects and numerous scientific papers, the latest of which is a monograph on the Micropterigidae (jaw moths) in the Fauna of New Zealand series. Until 2012, he taught a Victoria University course on the origin of New Zealand's flora and fauna, which formed the basis for Ghosts of Gondwana.