In a much closer contest than previous years – when the tardigrade and the common earthworm won with popular landslides – the winner of the 2026 Guardian Invertebrate of the year has been decided.
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The competition was launched three years ago to celebrate overlooked and often derided invertebrates, which number at least 1.7m species – about 97% of all animals – with probably millions more still to be discovered and described.
Without the unpaid labour of invertebrates, which pollinate crucial crops, filter water, recycle waste, clean up pollution and add fertility to soil, human life on Earth would quickly perish.
But will it be the blue-blood arthropod that has changed little in 445m years, the super-long, super-elastic worm that fires toxic slime, the dragonfly that migrates further than any other insect, or the irresistibly cute solar-powered sea slug that takes the prize?
Watch presenter and naturalist Chris Packham run down the top three to reveal the winner.
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