What are some adaptations of the weta?

1. How do WETA protect themselves?
2. How do Wetas survive?
3. Are WETA endangered?
4. How many giant Wetas are left in NZ?
5. How does the weta eat?
6. What do cave weta eat?
7. Can you eat weta?
8. What is a weta for kids?
9. Can weta jump?
10. Do Wetas like carrots?
11. What does the word Weta?
12. Does New Zealand have bugs?
13. Is a WETA an insect?
14. Is a WETA a grasshopper?
15. How much does a WETA weigh?

How do WETA protect themselves?

When threatened, wētā wave their spiky hind legs to frighten and/or scratch invaders and predators. They also hiss and bite. Female tree wētā can look pretty threatening, too. They have an ovipositor for laying eggs, but it looks like a very large stinger!

How do Wetas survive?

Perhaps the most extreme adaptation of all New Zealand's bizarre invertebrate fauna is that of the mountain stone weta. A remarkable insect with the ability to survive being seemingly frozen solid. It can cope with repeated cycles of freeze and thaw and freeze and thaw and come out alive and kicking.

Are WETA endangered?

WETA PUNGA: Considered nationally endangered, these giant wetas are one of the world's heaviest insects, weighing as much as a sparrow.

How many giant Wetas are left in NZ?

There are over 70 endemic species of wētā in New Zealand, including 11 species of giant wētā. Wētāpunga is the largest of these species. Wētāpunga feed on fresh leaves and prefer native plants with large leaves such as karaka, karamu, māmāngi, māhoe, and kohekohe.

How does the weta eat?

They are nocturnal, and all New Zealand species are flightless. Different species have different diets. Most wētā are predators or omnivores preying on other invertebrates, but the tree and giant wētā eat mostly lichens, leaves, flowers, seed-heads, and fruit. ... Wētā can bite with powerful mandibles.

What do cave weta eat?

Diet: Wētā are mainly herbivorous in the wild, but are also known to eat insects. Habitat: They are nocturnal and live in a variety of habitats including grassland, shrub land, forests, and caves. They excavate holes under stones, rotting logs, or in trees, or occupy pre-formed burrows.

Can you eat weta?

Weta flesh was regarded as a delicacy by the Maori, as shown by the above photograph. A ground weta, relative of the so-called sheep-eating weta. Today, wetas are a protected species.

What is a weta for kids?

Wētā (also spelled weta) is the common name for a group of about 70 insect species in the families Anostostomatidae and Rhaphidophoridae, endemic to New Zealand. ... They are giant flightless crickets, and some are among the heaviest insects in the world.

Can weta jump?

Due to their smaller mouths they tend to eat plants (not leaves), fungi and dead insects. Different to other wētā, cave wētā have extra-long antennae and long slender legs for jumping. They can even leap up to 3 meters!

Do Wetas like carrots?

3. It loves carrots. In 2011, Smithsonian researcher Mark Moffett stumbled upon a particularly large giant weta on a trip to New Zealand's Little Barrier Island. ... A New Zealand insect expert later noted to the New Zealand Herald that feeding the insects carrots is quite common.

What does the word Weta?

Definition of weta

: any of various large wingless long-horned insects (family Stenopelmatidae) of New Zealand especially : a large clumsy insect (Deinacrida heteracantha) measuring four inches in length.

Does New Zealand have bugs?

There are about 20,000 different types of insects in New Zealand. Because the country has been isolated in the middle of the Pacific Ocean for millions of years, most of these insects (over 90%) are found nowhere else.

Is a WETA an insect?

Wētā are large, spiny insects that are found in dark, damp places in gardens and bush throughout New Zealand. Be sure to check that gumboot before you put it on – a wētā may be hiding inside! Wētā are related to grasshoppers, locusts, crickets and katydids. Like these insects, they have powerful hind legs for jumping.

Is a WETA a grasshopper?

“Weta” is a strictly New Zealand name for a large, brown, flightless, nocturnal grasshopper. Rather similar sorts of grasshoppers occur all over the world, but they are not as big as the largest in New Zealand.

How much does a WETA weigh?

The giant weta is the world's heaviest reported insect. It can weigh up to 2.5 ounces, though many weta don't reach quite that giant of proportions.