My Weta Report

Hello there!
This is my weta report, I hope you enjoy it and like it. I did take a long time on it....So yeah, okay bye bye!

             #Weta#

                          By Eliza Fletcher-Ha

#Introduction#

Weta’s are members of the insect family. They are invertebrates. They are endemic to NZ. (Endemic means that they only are in NZ.) Weta’s are the biggest and heaviest insect to New Zealand.

    

#Appearance#

Weta have 3 body parts, head, thorax and abdomen. They look like a cockrock. The anti are nice and looooooong, like a butterfly! The stripes on it reminds me for a bee. (Or a wasp.)

                                                    

                                    

                                   

                                    #Habbit#

Weta’s live in grasslands, caves, and forests. They also like dark things. My friend, in my class said that she saw one in a tin can at her Dad’s work.

                                        

                                      #Diet#

Some weta’s are herbivores, (herbivores, means that they only eat plants.) Weta’s eat native plants. They enjoy eating, leaves, lichen, seeds heads, fruit, and flowers. Some weta’s are can also be carnivore. Ground and tusked wetas eat small invertebrates, like worms, and snails.

                                    

                                  #Life Cycle#

Weta’s laiy they there eggs in autumn, and sometime in Winter. The eggs hatch around Springtime. When they grow, there exoskeleton gets too tight, so there moult their exoskeleton, they do it at least 10 times.

                                          #Threats#

Weta’s have lots of native predators, such as, birds, reptiles, and bats. There are also more predators, like, possums, cats, rats, stoats, weasels, ferrets, and hedgehogs. Humans are destroying their homes, because they want to make farms, homes, and other buildings, and weta’s chose their spot before ours, and then we built buildings on their homes.

                                 #Conclusion#

The weta is a special insect and the department of conservation (D.O.C) has many programmes to help with their conservation.

                        

Interesting Weta/Giant Weta Facts

The name weta comes from the Maori word wetapunga, or “god of ugly things” [PDF]. The giant weta is one of the biggest insects on Earth, easily dwarfing most bugs and even some small rodents. First described in 1842, the giant weta was considered extinct on mainland New Zealand by the 1960s, though they were once populous across the northern island. Giant weta are now considered limited to Little Barrier Island, about 50 miles northeast of Auckland.