It's been a year since Friends of Flora championed Deinacrida tibiospina 'Tibio' The Mount Arthur Giant Weta for the 2024 Bug of the year competition. This gentle giant got more than 1700 votes! That's a lot of attention for Tibio, an ambassador for all threatened alpine invertebrates.
This year we are throwing our support behind another of the Flora's giants:
Holacanthella, Aotearoa's awesome giant sprintails
VOTE Holacanthella @ bugoftheyear.ento.org.nz/vote-here-2025/
Of course it's unique to Aotearoa and it is one of the weirdest, cutest, and most striking beasties. Despite being a springtail, it cannot spring and indeed lacks a furca, the apparatus springing springtails use to spring. Check out the video at the bottom of this page. In case you're wondering why you've never seen these beautiful giants, it's likely because 'giant' is relative in the world of springtails. Many springtails are microscopic, so ones that grow to all of 1 cm in length (like this one) are giants!
VOTE Holacanthella @ bugoftheyear.ento.org.nz/vote-here-2025/
Being such a biodiversity hotspot, it's no surprise that three different kinds of giant springtails have been recorded from the Flora. But as there had been no records since 2005, we enlisted the help of Frank Ashwood, a springtail afficianado, to go on a search. It was a soft, wet, misty day, ideal weather for Holacanthella and it wasn't long before we'd found two different species.
It's great to know that they're still flourishing in the Flora because they're considered to be a bit of a 'canary in the undergrowth' -- indicators of undisturbed old-growth forests. And they do a vital job in breaking down decaying wood and recycling forest nutrients.
VOTE Holacanthella @ bugoftheyear.ento.org.nz/vote-here-2025/
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.
VOTE Holacanthella @ bugoftheyear.ento.org.nz/vote-here-2025/
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