Did you know that insects, spiders, and other “bugs” make up well over half of Aotearoa New Zealand’s animal diversity and that most of them are found nowhere else on planet Earth? These creatures keep our crops and flowers pollinated, our soils aerated, our streams and forests healthy, our waste decomposed and our backyards buzzing. It’s time for Kiwis to give some attention to bugs of Aotearoa! Te Papa Invertebrate curators and Bug of the Year committee members Julia Kasper and Phil Sirvid explain how you can vote for your favourite bug.
Why do we need a bug of the year competition?
The Bug of the Year competition first launched in 2022. It is an initiative of the Entomological Society of New Zealand.
The main goal is to raise awareness of Aotearoa New Zealand’s incredible invertebrates by exploring them in a fun way. Our second goal is to show how anyone can be a citizen scientist thanks to the iNaturalist.nz website. All they have to do is post images of the critters flying/crawling around in their own backyards. Scientists can use the data from these observations on iNaturalist.nz to learn more about the patterns, population sizes, and ecology of these organisms.
How does it work?
The Bug of the Year website showcases approx. 20 nominees that change every year. Each nominee has its own page with more information, photos, colouring pages, and links for readers to learn even more.
Anyone can nominate their favourite bug. Just go to the website and tell us why your bug is special, and if you have a picture, that’s even better.
The next year’s nominees are first presented at the society’s annual conference around October and are publicly announced soon after. Voting opens January 1st and ends around Valentine’s Day (14th February), so there is plenty of time to take advantage of the different events, media, and social media campaigns being hosted throughout the summer to learn more about nominees.
Voting is easy. Just choose up to three of the nominees and hit the ‘vote’ button.
Merch and the Campaigns
Every year the wonderful artist, conservationist and bug lover Lily Duval creates a nominee’s poster and a collector’s pin showcasing the ultimate winner.
Campaigning for votes is sometimes intense but always fun. Many of our nominees have champions, and as you can see below, they’ll try just about anything to convince you why their bug is best and deserves your vote.
Te Papa’s favourites
As bug experts ourselves, we have our favourite nominees. Individually, as fans of flies and arachnids, we backed the namu sandfly (Julia) and kahuwai tunnelweb spider (Phil) in 2023 with social media posts and fun video clips.
But the official Te Papa favorite was the ngaro huruhuru native bee which became in the end the first Bug of the Year winner (see below).
In 2024, we were joined by mollusc expert Kerry Walton. Unsurprisingly Kerry supported our first ever mollusc nominee the superb giant land snail, which he had studied for his PhD. Phil was cheering for the katipō, our only dangerous venomous spider in New Zealand, while Julia campaigned for the glowworm, since it is one of the flies she is studying. The glowworm had a strong showing, coming in fourth place overall.
Bug of the Year 2025!
This year, Te Papa is backing the bat fly. It looks a bit like a spider, but it’s a wingless fly, so it appeals to both of us! It has many weird habits and only lives in colonies of the endangered short-tailed bat. This gentle blind and wingless fly lives with and on unique and threatened New Zealand shorttail bats, where it cleans the roost and the bats’ fur.
Don’t forget to vote for it!
You can vote for the bat fly, or your favourite bug on the Bug of the Year website.
First discovered on a bat in the 1950s, it wasn’t until a colony was found inside Kopi, a famous kauri (Agathis australis) that collapsed under its own weight in 1973, that it was formally described by Beverly Holloway. Learn more about the beautifully bizarre bat fly on the Bug of the Year website.
Previous winners and how they benefit
Bug of the Year 2023
Bug of the Year 2023 was the very first attempt. A small committee chose 24 nominees of a good variety of insects (and one spider). The ngaro huruhuru native bee flew through the competition (who doesn’t love a cute busy bee?) and became the first-ever Bug of the Year in 2023.
It is incredible to follow events, projects, and the support for the winner over the year. The Entomological Society of New Zealand funded a research project on native bees and multiple smaller public awareness projects. What was long a secret to the public – that there are native bees in Aotearoa New Zealand and not just honeybees – seems to be becoming common knowledge. On top of that, a big group of researchers, conservationists, educators, and other bee lovers have found each other and are planning future collaborations!
Read blogs about the New Zealand native bee:
Bug of the Year 2024
While a few of our nominees were repeated from 2023, we highlighted a much broader diversity of “bugs” on our nominee list for 2024 (we had representatives from 3 phyla (Arthropoda, Mollusca, and Onychophora), 5 Classes, 14 Orders, and 19 Families). Nine of our nominees are threatened species, and we were excited to have the opportunity to share their stories Overall, we had 16,991 votes cast by 6,814 voters from around the world. Places 2–7 nominees received over 1000 votes each, and all nominees received over 100 votes each.
The red admiral
Right: Kahukura has a collector’s pin and greeting card by NZPost
The kahukura New Zealand red admiral received 2,275 votes, thanks to the amazing campaign run by Jacqui Knight and her Moths and Butterflies of New Zealand Trust. The winner received money for ongoing research and a small donation went to the Friends of Tawa Bush Reserves for their work on kahukura.
What’s new this year – Bug of the Year 2025!
As well as 21 new nominees, this year the Entomological Society of New Zealand and the New Zealand Poetry Society Te Rōpū Toikupu o Aotearoa are joining forces for our first ever Bug of the Year Poetry Competition.
What can you do?
Vote and spread the word! Be inspired by some of last year’s efforts! Join the fun and fever around your favourite candidate! Last year saw some clever and creative campaigning and we hope that was only the beginning! Go wild and post social media (#BugOfTheYear2025) – let everyone know how wonderfully weird, beautifully elegant, and creepy crawly the bugs of Aotearoa are! You’re welcome to team up with a campaign leader or create your own campaign.
Moreover, we are now encouraging YOU to recommend your favourite “bug” that you’d like to see promoted through the Bug of the Year 2025 platform. Submissions are due by 1 July 2025, so we can announce the lineup at the next Ento Soc NZ Conference. More information on eligibility of future nominees can be found on the recommendations page.
If you want to make sure the winner gets enough support or simply that this campaign is worth supporting financially, you are welcome to donate a small amount, mentioning in the notes if this is for your favourite bug.
Events at Te Papa
On Valantine’s Day, 14 February, we’re opening the doors to tour our insect collection (booking essential) with some bug delicacies to try and the announcement and reading of the best bug poems!
More info
- Find more Bug of the Year events
- Social hashtags: #BugOfTheYear2025
- Watch Bat Fly, a music video by Fatcat and Fishface on NZ OnScreen
- Read more and watch a video about the bat fly on Te Ara, The Encyclopedia of New Zealand
Contact the Bug of the Year Committee
Email: BugoftheYear@ento.org.nz or go to @NZEntoSoc on Facebook, Instagram, or X (Twitter)
Lily Duvall, Jenny Jandt (University of Otago), Julia Kasper (Te Papa), Morgane Merien (Canterbury Museum), Tara Murray (Department of Conservation), Phil Sirvid (Te Papa), Connal McLean (University of Otago, Te Papa)
Remember to vote!
You can vote for the bat fly, or your favourite bug on the Bug of the Year website.
