The Bounty Islands are home to nine beetle species, including the Bounty Islands ground beetle (Bountya insularis), which is found nowhere else. Adults of this species were first collected in 1950, and in 1978 a diver reached Proclamation Island in the Bounty group and found a larva and adult male. The beetle is the sole New Zealand representative of the Creobiina sub-tribe. Related to ground beetles in Australia and South America, the Bounty Islands ground beetle is thought to be a relic of an ancient fauna.
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Private collection
Photograph by John Marris
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