Here is a Living Fossil-Hemideina thoracica

[kiwiorchids]

Hemideina thoracica, the Auckland Tree Weta or Tokoriro is a New Zealand native, as are all of the Wetas. This guy here is only a teenager, he still has a bit to go yet before he is fully grown. BUT, even fully grown, he isnt close to being the largest of them all, a couple of cave wetas are larger, and the Giant Weta is the largest, easily dwarfing my hand! Not to mention, it outweighs almost all insects on the planet. they are heavyweight champs!

Groups of these AMAZING creatures include:
Tree Wetas
Giant Wetas
Tusked Wetas
Cave Wetas
Ground wetas

All together there are around 70 species.

Just chillin'.....Note the visible ear-drums/holes on the forelegs.....(also my FAVORITE photo )


Being photogenic....


Comparison with a standard AA sized Battery-aprox 2x the size from tail to tip of the antennae!


On my hand just before he decided to run up my arm and bite and hiss at me....


Some extra reading about Tree Wetas, for your pleasure (From Te Ara NZ)

Tree weta (Hemideina) are those most commonly encountered in suburban settings in the North Island. They are up to 40 mm long and most commonly live in holes in trees formed by beetle and moth larvae or where rot has set in after a twig has broken off. The hole, called a gallery, is maintained by the weta and any growth of the bark surrounding the opening is chewed away. They readily occupy a preformed gallery in a piece of wood (a weta motel) and can be kept in a suburban garden as pets. A gallery might house a harem of up to ten juveniles of both sexes, females and one male. Tree weta are nocturnal. Their diet consists of plants and small insects. The males have much larger jaws than the females, though both sexes will hiss and bite when threatened.

There are seven species of tree weta:

The Auckland tree weta Hemideina thoracica (also called tokoriro) can be found throughout the North Island apart from the Wellington-Wairarapa region.

The Wellington tree weta H. crassidens occupies Wellington, the Wairarapa, the northern parts of South Island, and the West Coast.

H. crassidens crassicruris was described from Stephens Island but is now recognized as H. crassidens.

H. trewicki in Hawke's Bay.

H. femorata in Marlborough and Canterbury.

A rare H. ricta species in Banks Peninsula.

The West Coast bush weta H. broughi largely overlaps with the Wellington tree weta in Nelson and the northern portion of the West Coast.

H. maori, the mountain stone weta, lives in the drier areas of the South Island high country from the Kaikoura Ranges south to Rock and Pillar Range near Dunedin. At most sites it lives on the ground, under stones or in crevices but in at least two island (within lakes) sites which have not been modified greatly it happily lives both in trees and on the ground.

Mountain stone weta can survive being frozen for months in a state of suspended animation down to temperatures of -10°C. This is because their haemolymph (the insect equivalent of blood) contains special proteins that prevent ice from forming in their cells. It also displays the defensive behaviour of "playing dead", by lying still for a short time on its back with legs splayed and claws exposed and jaws wide open ready to scratch and bite.