Holacanthella

Holacanthella is a genus of giant springtails in the family Neanuridae, found only in New Zealand.

[1] Holacanthella species are usually dark bluish-grey in colour, with distinctive brightly-coloured spine-like projections (called digitations) on their skin.

The digitations range in colour from dark to white to yellow to red, even within a single species like H. paucispinosa, in which different colour morphs occur side by side and vary geographically.

Holacanthella are decomposers, relying on rotting hardwood logs for food.

They have been recorded only from indigenous native bush in New Zealand, preferring diverse, mature forest that has never been logged.

Holacanthella spinosa , Franz Josef , New Zealand
H. paucispinosa , Fraser's Gully, Dunedin , New Zealand