Peripatus, the velvet worm has been chosen as Bug of the Year, 2025 . Its name may sound soft and cuddly, but it's actually a voracious predator that ejects sticky goo to entrap it's prey which it then bites and injects with digestive saliva that enables it to suck out the body contents. Only nine of the maybe 30 species of Peripatus in Aotearoa have been formally described. At least two live in the Flora.
During the BOTY 2025 competition, FOF supported a different soil invertebrate, the magnificently named Holacanthella or giant springtail. It came third after Peripatus and the Aotearoa preying mantis. That soil invertebrates took two of the podium spots, is great publicity for these out-of-sight critters. Out-of-sight but essential to decomposition and the overall functioning of our old growth forests.
In Devonian mud, where the first steps were made,
Early springtails evolved in a joyous parade.
Reaching new heights by giving furcas a flick,
It's an ungraceful flight, but one hell of a trick.
Over four hundred million years they've existed,
That's five mass extinctions through which they've persisted.
When Gondwana split and the land tore asunder,
The springtails adapted to a new life down-under.
In young Aotearoa's dampened earth,
A new form evolved, a curious birth.
Residing under logs where shadows lay claim,
Its spring now exchanged for a sturdier frame.
Big, strong and proud, it roams with slow grace,
Trading high bounds for a bold, steady pace.
Its form immense, with spines coloured bright,
A small kind of giant, a wondrous sight.
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