Avatar moth named New Zealand bug of the year amid mining threat

A tiny, critically endangered moth named after the Avatar films has been crowned New Zealand’s bug of the year, taking 5,192 of the more than 11,000 votes cast. It beat the mahoenui giant wētā by 2,269 votes; other contenders included the spiky hellraiser mite, the black tunnelweb spider and a glow-in-the-dark giant earthworm.

Arctesthes avatar, a member of the Geometridae family, is endemic to New Zealand. The day-flying moth has brindled brown and marigold wings and is known only from the Denniston Plateau and nearby Mount Rochfort on the South Island’s west coast. Entomologist Brian Patrick discovered it during a 2012 bioblitz run by conservation group Forest & Bird, which later held a naming competition; the winning name, Avatar, was chosen to highlight the moth’s plight.

The moth’s primary habitat is threatened by a proposed expansion to open-cast coal mining on the Denniston Plateau, a project now moving through a new regulatory regime that could fast-track contentious mining and infrastructure approvals.

New Zealand, Denniston Plateau

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