Competition Corner

Forest and Bird, Volume 16, Issue 2, 1 May 1985, Page 28

Competition Corner

S ome tuis may be fooled by an insect that looks like a stick. The tui in Sue Bell’s cartoon was fooled by a stick that looked like an insect. Sue could not think of a good name for her foolish tui — can you? There is a $10 book token prize for the best one. You can find many different kinds of stick insect in New Zealand. Some of the spiny or knobbly looking ones belong toa group or ‘genus’ known as Acanthoxyla. If you can pronounce that you are a most unusual person. What is so unusual about a male Acanthoxyla? —

This tui is wearing bands on its legs so that researchers can tell which particular tui it is. There are four different coloured bands and they can be arranged in different orders on both legs. What is the maximum number of individual tuis I can band without repeating myself, if I cannot use more than two bands per leg? (I can of course use less than two.) Those are a couple of knotty problems. You are not expected to know the answers, unless you are a stick insect expert and a mathematical genius, but

you should be able to find them out. Write your answers on a piece of paper with your name and address at the top, and post them in an envelope to: Quest Competition, PO Bex go2-0-. Takapuna, Auckland. We shall start opening the envelopes on Monday 10th June, so make sure they are in by then. The first one opened with both answers right wins a $20 book token. Answers and winners in the next edition of Quest.