Photo: supplied
When Terry Hitchings retired from a career as a chemistry and physics teacher - and later a principal - he needed something else to do.
In the 30 years since, he's been collecting and documenting species of mayflies in New Zealand waters - creating a valuable database housed at Canterbury Museum for researchers studying conservation and environmental change.
He's also roped in his son, Tim, who in turn roped in his son, Richard, and the three generations of Hitchings have collected nearly 50,000 mayflies.
Terry and Tim have both become Canterbury Museum Research Associates and the pair have co-authored a number of research papers. They've also discovered 15 previously unknown mayfly species, and details of their collections can be found here.
