Excuse the radio silence from me lately, it's been a very intense University teaching semester.

On the plus side, I've done LOADS of entomology-related lecturing, which has been great fun! Naturally, I've squeezed in plenty of soil invertebrate content to my lectures, such as this bizarre, not-quite-an-insect, Proturan!

Protura are six-legged, wingless, eyeless and lack pigmentation and antennae. Instead, they raise their front pair of legs forwards as they move, which are covered in sensory hairs. This gives them the slightly comical appearance of a villain in Scooby-Do trying to sneak up menacingly behind someone!

Hey Mastodon, we need some expertise on #soil #remediation for a story. Have you ever done any hand-on #fieldwork inoculating dirt with a new #microbiome? Do you know anyone who has?

We've all been there: You've been hunting a moth all morning, and when you finally land the killing blow, you overcompensate and savage it so violently, you get its wing scales all up in your eyes.

Then a human comes along with a camera to immortalise your embarrassment. Typical!

Now Bug of the Year is over, normal service can resume!

Here's an incredibly feathery velvet mite (Chyzeriidae) from New Zealand. These active predators wander the forest floor, looking for springtails to ambush and drink dry using their piercing mouthparts! Beautiful but deadly.

NEW EUROPEAN RECORD

We were able to detect the Pygmy Shrews (Sorex minutus) in the high #alpine up to 3,300 m a.s.l. in #SouthTyrol #Italy, 780 metres higher than known before

New short note in #Hystrix (w/ #ChiaraPaniccia & @Eliag from https://bsky.app/profile/euracalpenv.bsky.social )

https://doi.org/10.4404/hystrix-00760-2024

Introducing New Zealand's latest Bug of the Year- the magnificent Ngāokeoke or Velvet Worm!

These amazing, ancient creatures were around long before the dinosaurs, and are taxonomically considered close relatives of Arthropods and Tardigrades. They have a unique method pf prey capture - using a pair of glue-gun organs on their heads to immobilise prey with a shower of sticky glue.

Aotearoa has two genera of velvet worms: one lays eggs (Ooperipatellus, 1st photo) and the other gives live birth (Peripatoides, 2nd). Oh, and to mate, males deposit sperm onto the skin of their partner, which then burrow through the female's skin and migrate throughout their blood to be stored in special uterine tubes until needed!

Truly remarkable creatures and well-deserving of their new title!

We're all on tenterhooks waiting for the results to be announced tomorrow for the NZ Bug of the Year competition!

Here's a few of my favourite contenders. Now voting is over I'll admit I have been quietly rooting for the velvet worm too - they're amazing animals, almost as great as giant springtails!

Whatever happens, thanks so much everyone for your support and patience with my endless vote soliciting on here.

Good luck tomorrow #TeamGiantSpringtail! Fingers crossed!

Only four days left in the Bug of the Year 2025 contest!

If every single one of my followers on here votes giant springtail RIGHT NOW, we'll easily beat the winner's votes last year!

Let's make it happen - we can't lose to the velvet worm in the last leg!

https://www.bugoftheyear.ento.org.nz/vote-here-2025/

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!

I know everything is a lot right now, but this is the LAST WEEK of Bug of the Year, and team velvet worm are hot on our heels!

Please VOTE NOW to make Giant Springtails victorious!

https://www.bugoftheyear.ento.org.nz/vote-here-2025/

Here's the announcement:
IF WE WIN, I WILL GET A GIANT SPRINGTAIL TATTOO!!

Colouring contest update

The #TeamGiantSpringtail colouring competition has had some impressive submissions, well done to everyone who has contributed so far!

To help some local libraries get involved, I'm extending the deadline to 14th Feb - so there's still time to submit a romantic valentines springtail drawing!

Just download the template and have a go! Post your finished artwork on here with the tag #TeamGiantSpringtail and make sure you vote for the giant springtail in the contest!

Template here: https://www.bugoftheyear.ento.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Giant-Springtail-scaled.jpg

Less than 3 weeks left till #BugoftheYear2025 is over!

I'll go back to posting photos of other lovely soil invertebrates when voting closes on 17th Feb... but until then it's gonna step up a notch!

Just look at this little face and go vote Giant Springtail: https://www.bugoftheyear.ento.org.nz/vote-here-2025/

Sup dawg, I heard you like springtails. So I put a springtail on your springtail so you can look at a springtail while looking at a springtail.

Don't let the competition walk all over giant springtails like this cheeky blighter, vote today: https://bugoftheyear.ento.org.nz/2025-bug-of-the-year-nominees/giant-springtail/

Do you need a New Year's resolution that's quick, free, easy to achieve and makes a difference?

Then l've got one for you! Vote for Giant Springtail (Holacanthella) in the Bug of the Year contest! You can vote from anywhere in the world, just follow the link below!

https://bugoftheyear.ento.org.nz/vote-here-2025/

#BugOfTheYear2025 #bugoftheyear
#TeamHolacanthella #Entomology #SoilBiodiversity #Macrophotography

Today I found this impressive oribatid mite in some leaf litter.

Oribatida are masters of self-protection: they've evolved protective armour flaps, defensive chemicals, and some even wear their old moults on their back like shields. But this Neotrichozetes spinulosa has said 'yeah nah' to all that and instead opted to become a sentient pincushion!

*Whispers* Hey, wanna see a cool millipede?

This is a 'pincushion' millipede (Polyxenida), a soft-bodied order that lack the chemical defences and hard exoskeleton of other millipedes. Instead they rely on tufts of detachable bristles to deter predators, by jamming their attacker's limbs and mouthparts!

Slime molds may resemble fungi, but are in fact a distinct group of unrelated organisms.

Although they're single-celled organisms, they'll also perform an astonishing feat of cooperation - gathering together as a collective ‘organism’ to form amazing fruiting bodies.

Which is your favourite?

Did you know that New Zealand and other land masses in the south-west Pacific are home to LEAF-VEINED SLUGS?!

Unlike their omnivorous European relatives, these unique leaf-mimicking slugs eat only fungi. They breathe mainly through the skin of the back, which is kept moist by secretions passing along the many grooves.

What amazing creatures!

Since you all really like Onychophora, here's a Peripatoides - another of NZ's beautiful endemic velvet worms.

Unlike the previous post, these little critters give live birth, but that's not the strangest thing about their reproduction. During mating, males deposit sperm packages anywhere onto the skin of the female, which then DISSOLVE HOLES in her skin and travel throughout her body. This process has a name as unromantic as the act itself: 'dermal-haemocoelic sperm transfer'.

And they say romance is dead.

This leggy arachnid is one of New Zealand's many species of 'Earth Mite' (family Penthaleidae).

Some members of this mite family are major global agricultural pests, BUT they do have one redeeming quality... they have DORSAL ANUSES.

That's right, their bottoms are on their top!

As giant springtails age, they grow more robust and develop longer spikes on their antennae and backs.

Nobody knows how long they can live for, probably a few years, but this gnarled Holacanthella duospinosa has all the hallmarks of a long innings!