The results are in, and New Zealanders have crowned the ngāokeoke (New Zealand velvet worm, Peripatoides novaezealandiae) the 2025 Bug of the Year.

The whē (New Zealand praying mantis) came second, while another unusual forest dweller – the giant springtail – took third place. The ātaka (exquisite Olearia owlet moth) and the rō (giant stick insect) came in fourth and fifth, respectively.

“Amidst strong competition, we are thrilled to secure the win for the velvet worm and help raise awareness of these cherished native creatures,” says ngāokeoke champion On Lee Lau from Tūhura Otago Museum.

It’s not hard to see why voters fell in love with this critter. Ngāokeoke are the height of forest fashion – they have velvety blue bodies decorated with delicate orange spangles.

Don’t let their beguiling appearance fool you, though, because ngāokeoke are deadly assassins of the forest floor.

When they see something they want to eat, two supersoaker nozzles on either side of their head douse their victim in a torrent of sticky slime that slowly dissolves their prey into soup.

As if being beautiful and terrifying isn’t enough, velvet worms are also ancient. They’ve been around for 500 million years, which means they crawled through our forests way before dinosaurs emerged on the scene.

It might be 2025’s champion, but the ngāokeoke isn’t the only bug that captured hearts in this year’s competition.

“It was a super close race this year and the praying mantis was only 110 votes behind out of nearly 25,000 votes!” says Connal McLean, member of the Bug of the Year committee.

“The competitors this year were really diverse: we had insects, spiders, snails, slugs, springtails and much more. It is the first time the competition has featured nominees each from a unique taxonomic family!”

“Invertebrates (‘bugs’) make the world tick, but they’re often left out of the spotlight,” says McLean.

Every year, the Bug of the Year competition makes a fuss about the smaller inhabitants of Aotearoa in a bid to make New Zealanders fall in love with our creeping and crawling neighbours.

And it certainly seems to be working. This year, around 10,000 New Zealanders (and folks from all over the world) voted in the competition.

So, what’s next for the champion bug?

“There is a lot of hidden diversity amongst velvet worm species, so we’re excited to see what researchers uncover about different populations, both around Dunedin and across the globe,” Lau says.

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