On the snail trail to greatness
A Wellington composer has attained a trio of great honours — the Order of Merit, arts laureate and, now, having a snail named after him.
Gareth Farr, musician and occasional drag queen, received the news of this latest accolade by email. ‘‘And I’m considering this right up there among them.’’
German scientist Dr Martin Haase and then-PhD student Dr Gerlien Verhaegen from Belgium, discovered the tiny snail, called Obtusopyrgus farri, on a research trip to New Zealand in 2016.
‘‘The snails were actually some kind of bycatch for another project – or rather our actual project,’’ Haase said.
In 2016, the pair spent six weeks in New Zealand doing field work.
They collected snails from a range of habitats in the central North Island and in the north-west of the South Island.
‘‘And in the course of this work we occasionally also found other species, including four new species and one new sub-species.’’
Found in a small stream flowing into Lake Rotoiti, the new species belonged to the family Tateidae, and the largest
specimen measured 2.3 mm.
‘‘They are of high conservation concern and vulnerable to human interventions into nature, including climate change,’’ Haase said. ‘‘Global warming is threatening our freshwater resources, small springs can dry out quickly.’’
Haase first heard Farr’s music during his post-doctoral research with Niwa in Hamilton from 2002-04.
‘‘I was fascinated by the amalgamation
of European style classical music and other traditions like Indonesian Gamelan, but in particular the music of Ma¯ ori. These syntheses, often with a dominant rhythmic, percussion-biased character, are truly amazing.
‘‘So I explored Gareth’s work and started to collect his CDs. It is in appreciation of his work that we named the snail after him.’’
Farr joked: ‘‘It’s just a day in the life of a composer really.’’