Left: Underside of H. pallitarsis female, Middle: Female eating the nuptial gift whilst sitting on a palm frond at night, Right: Male tree weta (Hemideina crassidens). The arrow points to his ear.
Weta are extraordinary creatures – but they tend to stay in the shadow of endemic birds and other species that have beauty on their side, and don’t tend to freak people out by getting into cupboards and gumboots.
Massey University’s Dr Steve Trewick and Mary Morgan-Richards co-wrote the book New Zealand Wild Life, Introducing the weird and wonderful character of natural New Zealand. They talk to Lynn Freeman about weta.
Steve also recently established an online tool for finding out about weta species and diversity.
Steve Trewick and co-author Mary Morgan Richards.
