Weta is Better
Our cat seems to love catching insects in the dark and then bringing them inside and tormenting them and lying on them before eating them, although sometimes she just leaves them on the floor if they are moths. It can be useful to get rid of annoying flies. I don't really get why she lies on them or rests her head on them, particularly since whenever they move she sits up and shakes her head around, as you would to if a beetle tried to crawl into your ear. And cats have comparatively large ears. On at least a couple of occasions, including just a few days ago, our cat has caught a weta. I really like wetas and think they are pretty awesome. This seems to be pretty much at odds with the views of everyone else, who apparently think they are very ugly, and various native names basically mean ugly bug.
New Zealanders may be unaware of the fact that wetas are in fact found in a variety of countries, generally those somewhat near NZ or that used to be joined to it along time ago, like Australia, New Guinea, South America and pretty much everywhere that isn't in Europe, North Africa or northern North America. Basically you get them in the Southern places of the world; there are probably fossils in Antarctica. As a species they are older than the tuatara, the much touted "living fossil".
Probably one reason we don't realise that they have weta in other countries is that they must be called something entirely different. "King cricket" is one name. Weta is better. Of course, so far I have been talking about weta, which are an entirely differenct Family of insect to cave weta. Of course, they look fairly similar. These are found in pretty much every continent by the looks of it except Africa. Since they are so similar, I don't see any good reason for this.
What makes it surprising that we don't all know more about weta is that there are about 50 species of each family of weta in New Zealand, and every single one of these 100 species (with more to be discovered no doubt) are unique to NZ. And New Zealand has about 20% of all weta species and 10% of all cave weta species in the world. That's a large proportion. What's more, ours are special because none of them have wings, whereas some overseas species can. It is interesting to compare this to our grasshoppers, most of which cannot fly either. And of course nor can many birds. Also interesting is the number of species of grasshopper and crickets that New Zealand has, which are in the sam Order as weta and cave weta. We only have 15 species of grasshopper and 8 of cricket, 0.15% and 0.2% of the total number of species worldwide, respectively. Compare all these numbers to the weta, and well, think about that, it is interesting. What it makes me think is why I didn't know more about them before. One thing it might explain is why I have seen so few grasshoppers in New Zealand (1), when they actually appear rather frequently in literature and so forth from overseas. I don't know how many actual insects of these types we have, but it seems like bugger all. Apparently in New Zealand, our 15 species of grasshopper are found mainly in the mountains of the South Island, many in very small isolated areas. In fact, looking at my grasshopper pictures here, maybe having seen one grasshopper in this country is pushing it. It didn't look like these pictures anyway. I remember with excellent clarity the first grasshopper I ever saw, which was in Japan. It was awesome; everyone thought I was weird. If I had a scanner or something I could scan in a picture. That would be good. Actually, I do have a scanner. I wonder if it works and if the resolution is better than a twister mat. Actually, I don't see it. Maybe I lost it.
Anyways, wetas.
Crickets look a lot like weta if you were wondering. And when G, from Australia sees a weta he says it is a cricket, whereas I immediately, but doubtfully, know it is a weta. Doubtfully because I didn't know you found weta in gardens, and I don't think I ever saw a wild one before the cat started finding them. At any rate, my weta are ground weta, of which there are 30 species, but my one looks almost identical to the picture of the Hemiandrus species in my book, except it was female with a big egg-laying spike. It was also missing one of its back legs, I think the cat was responsible. After putting it in a container I thought it died, of blood loss or something (imagine if someone ripped your leg off where it joins the body), but apparently this is ok for insects, even when it is the largest appendage - the other legs are more comparable to arms than legs, relative sizewise. So I left it for a day, and then went to look at it, and tried to tip the container to get it in a better position to see it, and it didn't move so I tipped it upside down and shook it and then it fell off AND moved. So it was still alive, so I put it in the garden, where it can hop around or something.
It looked a fair amount like the one on this page. Also see this picture (from this interesting page) which is a better picture actually.
Weta have always pretty much been my favourite insect, except for the weta that look like giant termites, I don't like those ones, and they (except the termite-ones) have cute little faces. At least mine did. And we have them in the garden!! I bet all of you already knew that you had weta in your garden and you think I'm an idiot. (And tree weta, they've got termite like heads and are more stripy, I don't like them either.) If anyone wants to buy me a book about weta, or tell me if there is such a thing, feel free. I also need to know how to find weta without the cat eating them. We might have to do it like you do with truffle-pigs, but a weta-cat.
(Most information, but not all, from "Which New Zealand Insect?" by Andrew Crowe. This is a damn expensive book, but the only one I have found with pictures of NZ insects. I have even managed to identify, like, 2 things since buying it at new year. Problem is that I cannot identify the EXACT species, and I STILL don't know what the one elusive insect I have been wondering about for years is. It isn't in the book, it isn't at the museum, it isn't on the Department of Conservation website, it isn't anyway. Anyway, $40 for a 120page book, A5 size, and 40 pages on moths and butterflies which don't count cos I'm not interested in them.)
New Zealanders may be unaware of the fact that wetas are in fact found in a variety of countries, generally those somewhat near NZ or that used to be joined to it along time ago, like Australia, New Guinea, South America and pretty much everywhere that isn't in Europe, North Africa or northern North America. Basically you get them in the Southern places of the world; there are probably fossils in Antarctica. As a species they are older than the tuatara, the much touted "living fossil".
Probably one reason we don't realise that they have weta in other countries is that they must be called something entirely different. "King cricket" is one name. Weta is better. Of course, so far I have been talking about weta, which are an entirely differenct Family of insect to cave weta. Of course, they look fairly similar. These are found in pretty much every continent by the looks of it except Africa. Since they are so similar, I don't see any good reason for this.
What makes it surprising that we don't all know more about weta is that there are about 50 species of each family of weta in New Zealand, and every single one of these 100 species (with more to be discovered no doubt) are unique to NZ. And New Zealand has about 20% of all weta species and 10% of all cave weta species in the world. That's a large proportion. What's more, ours are special because none of them have wings, whereas some overseas species can. It is interesting to compare this to our grasshoppers, most of which cannot fly either. And of course nor can many birds. Also interesting is the number of species of grasshopper and crickets that New Zealand has, which are in the sam Order as weta and cave weta. We only have 15 species of grasshopper and 8 of cricket, 0.15% and 0.2% of the total number of species worldwide, respectively. Compare all these numbers to the weta, and well, think about that, it is interesting. What it makes me think is why I didn't know more about them before. One thing it might explain is why I have seen so few grasshoppers in New Zealand (1), when they actually appear rather frequently in literature and so forth from overseas. I don't know how many actual insects of these types we have, but it seems like bugger all. Apparently in New Zealand, our 15 species of grasshopper are found mainly in the mountains of the South Island, many in very small isolated areas. In fact, looking at my grasshopper pictures here, maybe having seen one grasshopper in this country is pushing it. It didn't look like these pictures anyway. I remember with excellent clarity the first grasshopper I ever saw, which was in Japan. It was awesome; everyone thought I was weird. If I had a scanner or something I could scan in a picture. That would be good. Actually, I do have a scanner. I wonder if it works and if the resolution is better than a twister mat. Actually, I don't see it. Maybe I lost it.
Anyways, wetas.
Crickets look a lot like weta if you were wondering. And when G, from Australia sees a weta he says it is a cricket, whereas I immediately, but doubtfully, know it is a weta. Doubtfully because I didn't know you found weta in gardens, and I don't think I ever saw a wild one before the cat started finding them. At any rate, my weta are ground weta, of which there are 30 species, but my one looks almost identical to the picture of the Hemiandrus species in my book, except it was female with a big egg-laying spike. It was also missing one of its back legs, I think the cat was responsible. After putting it in a container I thought it died, of blood loss or something (imagine if someone ripped your leg off where it joins the body), but apparently this is ok for insects, even when it is the largest appendage - the other legs are more comparable to arms than legs, relative sizewise. So I left it for a day, and then went to look at it, and tried to tip the container to get it in a better position to see it, and it didn't move so I tipped it upside down and shook it and then it fell off AND moved. So it was still alive, so I put it in the garden, where it can hop around or something.
It looked a fair amount like the one on this page. Also see this picture (from this interesting page) which is a better picture actually.
Weta have always pretty much been my favourite insect, except for the weta that look like giant termites, I don't like those ones, and they (except the termite-ones) have cute little faces. At least mine did. And we have them in the garden!! I bet all of you already knew that you had weta in your garden and you think I'm an idiot. (And tree weta, they've got termite like heads and are more stripy, I don't like them either.) If anyone wants to buy me a book about weta, or tell me if there is such a thing, feel free. I also need to know how to find weta without the cat eating them. We might have to do it like you do with truffle-pigs, but a weta-cat.
(Most information, but not all, from "Which New Zealand Insect?" by Andrew Crowe. This is a damn expensive book, but the only one I have found with pictures of NZ insects. I have even managed to identify, like, 2 things since buying it at new year. Problem is that I cannot identify the EXACT species, and I STILL don't know what the one elusive insect I have been wondering about for years is. It isn't in the book, it isn't at the museum, it isn't on the Department of Conservation website, it isn't anyway. Anyway, $40 for a 120page book, A5 size, and 40 pages on moths and butterflies which don't count cos I'm not interested in them.)
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