|
 Māori
name: wētā, pūtangatanga, taepo, taipo,
tokoriro
English name: Auckland tree wētā
Scientific name: Hemideina figurata (Walker)
order = Orthoptera; family = Anostostomatidae (formerly Stenopelmatidae)
- is found on Te Ika a Māui / North Island, north of the Manawatu
Gorge;
- differs from other species of tree wētā in having the
body plate behind the head largely pinkish white;
- has a complicated social life, with one male (the big-headed specimen
as depicted here) maintaining a harem of females, and many young;
- shelters in trees - in clumps of kahakaha, or in puriri moth tunnels,
or large wood-borer galleries that they have enlarged with their powerful
mandibles;
- communicates by stridulating - moving their thighs, which have a
group of pegs on the inner side, against a scraper or ridge on the
side of the abdomen.
 Return
to Pare
Return
to list of arthropods on Pare
|
