Terrestrial fauna
With such a wide variety of habitats, Queensland’s terrestrial environments are also home to a remarkable diversity of animal species, making Queensland the most faunistically biodiverse state or territory in Australia.
The major terrestrial vertebrate groups – the mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians – are all well represented in Queensland, with many iconic species found nowhere else.
Insects are the most abundant and diverse animals throughout the state, closely followed by their main invertebrate predators – the arachnids. Tropical and subtropical rainforest habitats have an extremely high species richness of insects and arachnids, although both groups are well represented across all of Queensland’s habitats.
Many other lineages of terrestrial invertebrates also form part of the Queensland terrestrial fauna, including millipedes and centipedes (the myriapods), snails, terrestrial crustaceans, velvet worms, flatworms, nematodes and earthworms, among others.