Vote for the Taranga Pill Woodlouse for NZ Bug of the Year

Long before parrots came into my life in the form of my first pet budgie, I discovered what Americans call the sowbug or pillbox bug and Kiwis call the slater. As a little girl I had perhaps an odd affinity for the tiny grey creatures which I used to find under rocks and collect in plastic margarine containers. Growing up in Maryland, I learned about our native Chesapeake Bay blue crab and how you can tell a female from a male by their undersides. The males have a exoskeletal plate resembling the Washington Monument, while the analogous female structure looks like the Congress building. I discovered my unusual little pets shared this anatomical distinction, so perhaps it wasn't a huge surprise to learn that these so-called bugs are actually crustaceans. This was the takeaway lesson for me when I found them on display at the Insect Zoo atop the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC as a girl. Fast forward to last year, when I agreed to champion a slater native to Aotearoa as our Bug of the Year for 2026. After all, at Cheeky Parrot, we appreciate little things.

The Taranga Pill Woodlouse is a tiny, endearing crustacean that quietly keeps New Zealand’s forests alive — a secret recycler that can recognise its family and breathe with gills, working tirelessly beneath the leaf litter.

What's not to love?

Saryu Mae, CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons Again, despite its name, the Taranga Pill Woodlouse isn’t an insect. You can tell this at a glance because it has more than three body sections and more than six legs. Its closest relations are crabs and prawns rather than beetles or butterflies. Its ancestors once lived in the sea, and it still has distant cousins there, and like them, it breathes using specialised, gill-like structures — which is why it needs damp, shady places to survive on land.

In evolutionary terms, woodlice are pioneers: among the very first animals to make the transition from ocean to land. Woodlice species are the world's only fully terrestrial crustaceans.

Tiny but vital recyclers

What really earns the Taranga Pill Woodlouse its place in the spotlight is the work it does every day, unnoticed.

Woodlice feed on dead leaves, rotting wood, and other decaying plant matter. By breaking this material down, they:

• recycle nutrients back into the soil

• support fungi and microorganisms

• improve soil structure

• help forests and gardens stay healthy

Without decomposers like woodlice, leaf litter would pile up and nutrients would be locked away instead of reused. They are a crucial link in the ecosystem — nature’s clean-up crew.

Social and clever

One of the most fascinating discoveries about woodlice is that they are not as simple as we once thought. Research has shown that some species can recognise and prefer the company of their own relatives, likely using chemical cues to identify family members.

In other words, this tiny crustacean doesn’t just wander aimlessly — it makes social choices. For an animal so often dismissed as “just a bug,” that’s remarkable.

Endemic, adapted, and easily overlooked

The Taranga Pill Woodlouse is found only in New Zealand. It has evolved to thrive in our local conditions, quietly doing its work in leaf litter, under logs, and in garden soil.

It doesn’t bite. It doesn’t sting. It doesn’t damage healthy plants. Its greatest crime is being small, brown, and easy to ignore.

Why it deserves your vote

In a world where flashy insects often steal the limelight, the Taranga Pill Woodlouse reminds us that ecosystems depend on the quiet workers. It represents resilience, cooperation, and the invisible labour that keeps nature functioning.

By voting for the Taranga Pill Woodlouse, you’re voting for:

• the recyclers

• the underdogs

• the creatures that hold everything together without asking for credit

Sometimes the most important species aren’t the loudest or the prettiest — they’re the ones doing the work beneath our feet.

So please visit the Bug of the Year website and cast your vote for the Taranga Pill Woodlouse! Voting closes at midnight on 16 February.

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