# Giant wētā (*Deinacrida mahoenui*)

Giant Weta is a large, flightless insect from New Zealand. It moves slowly and is active at night. When threatened, an adult raises its spiny hind legs, ready to kick.

- **Category:** [Insects](https://www.snappit.app/explore/categories/insect)
- **Rarity:** Rare
- **Danger:** 2/5 · Low
- **Habitat:** Gorse scrub and regenerating native forest near Mahoenui in New Zealand's King Country.
- **Also known as:** Weta

![Giant Weta](https://res.cloudinary.com/drieglelr/image/upload/v1771426439/objects/5535.jpg)

## Appearance

The Giant Weta has a large, sturdy body that is usually dark mahogany brown, though about one in three is yellow. Its spiny hind legs are a key feature. Females, up to 75 mm long, have a long egg-laying tube at the tail.

## Taxonomy

- **Kingdom:** Animalia
- **Phylum:** Arthropoda
- **Class:** Insecta
- **Order:** Orthoptera
- **Family:** Anostostomatidae
- **Genus:** Deinacrida

## Giant wētā, up close

The Mahoenui giant wētā (Deinacrida mahoenui) is a large, flightless, night-active insect found naturally only near Mahoenui in New Zealand’s King Country, where it survived for decades in thickets of gorse. It is one of 11 giant wētā species (genus Deinacrida); its cousin the wētāpunga holds the record for the heaviest insect ever weighed, at 71 g. In New Zealand the Mahoenui giant wētā is classed as Threatened – Nationally Critical.

Also called: Mahoenui giant wētā, Māhoenui giant wētā, Mahoenui weta, Giant wētā.

Spiny hind legs, a gorse hideout and a 71 g cousin. Spin it, tap it, then test yourself.

### Special abilities

- **Spiny Kick** (Legs up adults’ warning pose): When something threatens it, an adult giant wētā doesn’t hop away. It raises its spiny hind legs towards the threat, ready to kick. [1][2][11][7]
  - DOC’s wētā recovery plan notes that young wētā may jump away from danger, while adults raise their spiny hind legs instead.
  - In tree wētā, the kick comes with a rasping sound; the youngest nymphs lack the sound pegs and jump instead.
  - Spines don’t stop rats, cats or hedgehogs, which arrived with people. That’s why predator control matters so much.
- **Leg Rasp** (4 types of sound-makers in NZ wētā; still debated): Many wētā make a scratchy sound by rubbing pegs on their hind legs against a ridged file on the sides of the abdomen. How much giant wētā use it is less clear. [13][2][14][6]
  - A study of 35 wētā species found four kinds of sound-making equipment, including file-and-peg types in tree wētā and giant wētā.
  - In tree wētā the rasping happens while kicking, so scientists think it is a warning.
  - An alpine giant wētā made no sounds when courting, unlike tree wētā.
  - Male Cook Strait giant wētā face off rivals with vibrations through the ground rather than chirps.
- **Night Browser** (16 m a male wētāpunga moves per night): After dark, giant wētā climb through the leaves to feed. They are mainly plant-eaters that also eat some insects. [9][1][10][7]
  - Radio-tracked wētāpunga fed, moved and laid eggs at night. Males moved about 16 m a night, females about 8 m.
  - The Mahoenui giant wētā lives mostly in gorse bushes and is described as omnivorous, eating plants and other insects.
  - Mahoenui wētā moved further on warmer nights and less in autumn: about 3 m every two days, against about 10 m in summer.
  - How far does a wētāpunga walk in one night?: Male wētāpunga ≈16 m; Female wētāpunga ≈8 m
- **Gorse Hideout** (9× more likely eaten in native bush): By day, a Mahoenui giant wētā tucks itself deep into a prickly gorse bush, where rats and hedgehogs struggle to reach it. [10][11][12]
  - Radio-tracked wētā rested 0.6–2.4 m up in the dense foliage of gorse bushes.
  - Wētā living in regenerating native forest were 9 times more likely to be killed by predators than wētā in browsed gorse.
  - Goats browsing the gorse kept it dense. As the reserve turns back into native bush, the wētā’s shield is thinning.
- **Egg Drill** (≤100 eggs per group, laid in soil): A female pushes her long ovipositor into the soil and lays her eggs underground, in small groups of up to 100. [11][12][15]
  - Mahoenui eggs are probably laid around March and stay in the ground about 10 months, hatching when the weather warms.
  - A wētāpunga female lays eggs throughout her adult life, about 100–300 in total.
  - Coming down to the ground to lay is risky: that is when females are most often caught by introduced predators.
- **Moult Marathon** (9 nymph stages before adulthood): A wētā grows by moulting: it climbs out of its old skin a little bigger each time. A Mahoenui giant wētā goes through 9 nymph stages. [12][1]
  - Scientists at Mahoenui counted 9 nymph stages, taking about a year to reach adulthood.
  - Growth seems to vary with the season, so wētā of many ages live side by side all year.
  - Its relative the Poor Knights giant wētā goes through 10–11 nymph stages.
- **Slow Grow-Up** (≈2 years from egg to adult): From egg to adult takes a Mahoenui giant wētā up to two years: about 10 months as an egg, then about a year as a growing nymph. [12][11][15]
  - Eggs laid in autumn hatch about a year later; nymphs become adults in late summer, when they mate.
  - DOC says it takes up to two years to reach adulthood.
  - Wētāpunga take 14–24 months to grow up, then live only about 6–9 months as adults.
  - Egg time vs nymph time (≈22 months from egg to adult): Nymph stages (≈1 year)

### Body parts

- **Hind legs** [1][2][3]
  - Adult giant wētā don’t hop away from danger. They raise their spiny hind legs towards the threat, ready to kick.
  - Young nymphs are different: they may jump away instead.
  - In tree wētā, pegs on the inside of each hind leg rasp against a ridged file on the abdomen while the wētā kicks.
  - Giant wētā are flightless, so walking and climbing legs do all the work.
- **Ears and senses** [4][5][6]
  - Wētā hear with ears on their front legs, just below the knee. Each ear has two eardrums.
  - Organs inside the legs also pick up vibrations travelling through branches and the ground.
  - Male Cook Strait giant wētā challenge rivals with vibrations. The male who starts the duel usually wins.
- **Head and jaws** [7][1][8]
  - Strong jaws (mandibles) chew leaves. Wētā are mainly plant-eaters but also eat some insects.
  - The Mahoenui giant wētā is described as omnivorous: it eats plants and other insects.
  - Its cousins, male tree wētā, grow much bigger heads and jaws to fight rivals, and big-headed tree wētā feed faster.
- **Eyes** [9][1][10]
  - Giant wētā are nocturnal: feeding, walking and egg-laying happen at night.
  - Mahoenui giant wētā move further in warmer weather, above about 13.5 °C.
  - Wētāpunga pairs meet at night but usually mate in daylight.
- **Body colours** (≈1 in 3 Mahoenui wētā are yellow) [11][12]
  - Most Mahoenui giant wētā are dark mahogany brown, but about a third are yellow. No other giant wētā has two distinct colour forms.
  - In a study published in 1993, 39% of females and 23% of males were yellow.
  - One female was found that was mahogany on one side and yellow on the other.
- **Ovipositor** (75 mm longest females) [11][12]
  - Only females have this long egg-laying tube at the tip of the abdomen. It’s for laying eggs, not stinging.
  - Females are bigger: up to 75 mm long and 19 g, while males weigh up to about 12 g.
  - Males and females are about equal in number, and pairs appear to stay with one partner.
- **Egg spot** (≤100 eggs per group) [11][12]
  - A female pushes her ovipositor into the ground and lays small groups of up to 100 eggs.
  - Eggs are probably laid around March and stay in the soil for about 10 months, hatching when the weather warms.
  - Coming down to the ground to lay eggs is risky: that is when females are most often caught by introduced predators.
- **Daytime hideout** (0.6–2.4 m daytime perch height in gorse) [10][9]
  - By day, radio-tracked Mahoenui giant wētā rested 0.6–2.4 m up inside dense gorse bushes.
  - In native trees they hid higher, more than 2.5 m up in the canopy.
  - Wētāpunga are less shy: many rest in fairly open spots on trees, clearly visible by day.
- **Gorse fortress** (9× safer in browsed gorse) [11][12][10]
  - Gorse is a prickly weed from Europe, but at Mahoenui it shielded the wētā from predators for more than 30 years.
  - Goats browsing the gorse kept it tight and dense, and the wētā lived mostly on slopes used by cattle and goats.
  - Wētā in regenerating native forest were 9 times more likely to be killed by predators than wētā in browsed gorse.

### Stats

| Stat | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Female weight | up to 19 g | Mahoenui adult females; males up to 12 g; About the weight of a mouse [11] |
| Female length | up to 75 mm | a 1998 survey gave 65–74 mm for females and 45–49 mm for males [11][1] |
| Wētāpunga record | 71 g | a pregnant female found in 2011: the heaviest insect weighed; Almost 4 times a large Mahoenui female [16][11] |
| Eggs per group | ≤100 | laid in the soil with the ovipositor [11] |
| Time as an egg | ≈10 months | laid around March, hatching about a year later [12] |
| Nymph stages | 9 | about a year from hatching to adult [12] |
| Egg to adult | up to 2 years | adults appear in late summer [11][12] |
| Yellow wētā | ≈1 in 3 | 39% of females and 23% of males in a 1993 study [11][12] |
| Safer in gorse | 9× | predation risk in native bush compared with browsed gorse [10][11] |
| Plots with wētā | 50% → 2% | share of monitored reserve plots with wētā, in the 10 years after 2012 [18] |

### Photos

- [The less common yellow form, on gorse at Mahoenui](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DOC_MGW_on_gorse.jpg) (photo: Amanda Haigh (Department of Conservation), CC BY 4.0)
- [Sheltering in gorse, its daytime refuge](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DOC_MGW_in_gorse.jpg) (photo: Amanda Haigh (Department of Conservation), CC BY 4.0)
- [Wētāpunga on Tiritiri Matangi Island, one of its new island homes](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Giant_weta_sitting_on_a_tree_branch_fork_(Tiritiri_Matangi).jpg) (photo: Pseudopanax at English Wikipedia, Public domain)
- [A wētāpunga released on Tiritiri Matangi Island in 2014](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wetapunga.jpg) (photo: Dinobass, CC BY-SA 4.0)
- [Wētāpunga, the heaviest of the giant wētā](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Deinacrida_heteracantha_12260329.jpg) (photo: Shaun Lee, CC BY 4.0)
- [Resting in a tree hole by day](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Giant_weta_tucked_into_a_hole_in_a_tree_(Tiritiri_Matangi).jpg) (photo: Pseudopanax at English Wikipedia, Public domain)
- [A female Cook Strait giant wētā: the tube at her tail is the ovipositor](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ORTH_Anostostomidae_Deinacrida_rugosa_in_habitat.png) (photo: Desmond W. Helmore, CC BY 4.0)
- [Cook Strait giant wētā on Matiu/Somes Island, Wellington Harbour](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Deinacrida_rugosa_NZ.jpg) (photo: Wvermaat, Public domain)
- [Poor Knights giant wētā, another tree-dwelling giant wētā](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Poor_Knights_giant_w%C4%93t%C4%81_(Deinacrida_fallai)_on_leaf.jpg) (photo: Dylan van Winkel, CC BY-SA 4.0)

### Questions

- **Is the giant wētā the heaviest insect in the world?** A wētāpunga, the Little Barrier giant wētā, holds the Guinness record for the heaviest insect weighed: a pregnant female of 71 g found in 2011. The Mahoenui giant wētā is smaller, at up to about 19 g. [16][11]
- **How big is a Mahoenui giant wētā?** Females grow up to 75 mm long and 19 g, about the weight of a mouse. Males are smaller, up to about 12 g. [11]
- **What do giant wētā eat?** Mostly plants. They feed on leaves at night and also eat some insects. The Mahoenui giant wētā lives mainly in gorse bushes. [1][7][9]
- **Can giant wētā fly or jump?** They are flightless. Adults walk and climb slowly; young nymphs may jump away from danger, but adults raise their spiny hind legs instead. [3][1]
- **Is it safe to touch a giant wētā?** Please don’t. Giant wētā are rare wild insects, and a frightened adult raises its spiny hind legs to kick. Watch quietly from a distance, and never take one home. [18][1]
- **Why is the Mahoenui giant wētā endangered?** Introduced predators such as rats, hedgehogs and cats eat it. Its gorse refuge is turning into native bush, where wētā are 9 times more likely to be killed, and fire is a constant risk. [11][10]
- **Where can you see a giant wētā?** Wētāpunga now also live on islands such as Tiritiri Matangi and Motuora in the Hauraki Gulf. Mahoenui giant wētā live in their reserve and in sanctuaries such as Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari. They hide by day, so sightings are rare. [15][11]
- **What does “wētā” mean?** Wētā is a Māori word, short for wētāpunga, the name of the giant wētā that once lived in Northland. [1]

### Giant wētā myths and facts

Some wētā “facts” online are wrong, and records often get pinned on the wrong species.

- "Giant wētā are friendly insects that love to hop around." **Myth!** Wētā are slow-moving. When threatened, adults raise their spiny hind legs, ready to kick; only young nymphs may jump away. They are wild animals and should be left alone. [1][2]
- "A giant wētā is the heaviest insect ever weighed." **Fact!** Guinness World Records lists 71 g for a pregnant female wētāpunga found in 2011. Some people claim Goliath beetles can be as heavy, so the overall title is still argued about. [16]
- "The Mahoenui giant wētā holds the 71 g record." **Myth!** The record belongs to its cousin the wētāpunga (Deinacrida heteracantha). Mahoenui females reach about 19 g, about as heavy as a mouse. [16][11]
- "Giant wētā chirp by rubbing their legs together." **Myth!** Wētā that make sounds rub pegs on the inside of a hind leg against a ridged file on the side of the abdomen, not leg against leg. Giant wētā are rarely heard: one alpine species made no sounds when courting. [2][13][14]
- "A prickly weed saved the Mahoenui giant wētā." **Fact!** Gorse, a pest plant from Europe, kept dense by browsing goats, protected the wētā from rats and other predators for more than 30 years. [11][10]
- "Giant wētā can fly." **Myth!** Giant wētā are flightless. They walk and climb, mostly at night. [3][9]
- "Wētā are living fossils that haven’t changed since the dinosaurs." **Not proven!** DOC says wētā were around in the age of dinosaurs. But DNA shows New Zealand’s wētā come from four separate lineages, with relatives in Australia and New Caledonia. Giant and tree wētā have also adapted to habitats from warm lowlands to cold mountains. [7][19][20]
- "“Wētā” is a Māori word." **Fact!** The name is short for wētāpunga, the Māori name for the giant wētā that once lived in Northland. [1]

### Giant wētā records

Heavyweights, survivors and one-of-a-kind colours. Check which wētā holds which record.

- Heaviest insect weighed: Wētāpunga (Deinacrida heteracantha), 71 g (a pregnant female found on Little Barrier Island in 2011) [16]
- Heaviest in captivity: Wētāpunga, captive female, 71.3 g (recorded in a 1970s captive study, cited in DOC’s 1998 recovery plan) [1]
- Longest giant wētā: Wētāpunga, 82 mm (female body length; New Zealand’s largest insect) [1][9]
- Last lowland giant wētā on the mainland: Mahoenui giant wētā, 1 natural population (the only lowland giant wētā still living naturally on New Zealand’s mainland) [10][11]
- Only giant wētā with two colour forms: Mahoenui giant wētā, 2 colours (dark mahogany brown or yellow) [11]
- Most giant wētā named in one paper: George Gibbs (1999), 4 species (including the Mahoenui giant wētā, raising the known giant wētā species from 7 to 11) [21]

### A Mahoenui giant wētā’s life

Up to two years from a buried egg to a spiny adult.

- **Autumn (about March)**: Eggs in the soil. A female comes down from her bush and pushes her ovipositor into the ground, laying groups of up to 100 eggs. [12][11]
- **About 10 months**: Waiting underground. The eggs stay in the soil and hatch when the weather warms up. [12][11]
- **Hatching**: A small nymph. A young wētā hatches. Young nymphs may jump away from danger rather than kick. [12][1]
- **Over the next year**: 9 moults. The nymph moults through 9 stages, growing bigger each time. Wētā of many ages live side by side. [12]
- **Late summer**: Adult at last. It becomes an adult and mates. Mahoenui giant wētā seem to stay with one partner. [12]
- **Every night**: Feed and wander. Adults feed at night and rest in gorse by day, moving only a few metres every two days. [10][1]
- **Adult female**: The risky trip down. To lay eggs, females come down to the ground, where introduced predators are most likely to catch them. [11]

### Saving the Mahoenui giant wētā

Found in 1962, protected by gorse, and Nationally Critical by 2022.

- **1962**: Found at Mahoenui. Giant wētā were discovered in patches of tawa forest at Mahoenui in the King Country. DOC calls it a rediscovery of a wētā long thought gone from the mainland. [11][7]
- **1987**: Wētā in the gorse. More wētā turned up on farmland turning into gorse scrub. [11]
- **1992**: A scientific reserve. The land became a scientific reserve for the wētā. [1][11]
- **1993**: First island release. More than 200 wētā were released on Mahurangi Island. [1]
- **1999**: A scientific name. Entomologist George Gibbs named the species Deinacrida mahoenui, a survivor of the north’s old lowland forests. [21]
- **2008**: Lessons from releases. A review found very few wētā at two mainland release sites and recommended mammal-free sanctuaries with native forest. [22]
- **2012–2022**: A worrying decline. The share of survey plots with wētā fell from about 50% to about 2% as the gorse grew tall and native bush returned. [18][10]
- **2019–2020**: Pest control. Rodent control began in 2019; traps for stoats and other mustelids, hedgehogs and feral cats followed in 2020. [18]
- **2022**: Nationally Critical. New Zealand’s threat classification moved the species from At Risk – Recovering to Threatened – Nationally Critical. [18][23]

### Mahoenui giant wētā vs wētāpunga vs tree wētā

Two giant wētā and a smaller, big-headed cousin, side by side.

| | Mahoenui giant wētā | Wētāpunga | Auckland tree wētā |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scientific name [21][9][8] | Deinacrida mahoenui | Deinacrida heteracantha | Hemideina thoracica |
| Wild home [11][15] | Mahoenui, King Country, plus a few release sites | Hauturu-o-Toi / Little Barrier Island, plus release islands | — |
| Heaviest adult female [11][15][16] | ≈19 g | up to 35 g (record 71 g) | — |
| Female length [11][1] | up to 75 mm | up to 82 mm | — |
| Diet [1][7] | Plants and some insects | Mainly plants | Mainly plants |
| Male weapons [8][1] | — | — | Enlarged head and jaws |
| NZ threat status (2022) [18] | Threatened – Nationally Critical | Threatened – Nationally Increasing | Not Threatened |
| IUCN Red List [24][17] | Not assessed | Vulnerable (1996) | — |

— means we found no reliable figure. Tree wētā diet follows DOC’s note that wētā are mainly plant-eaters.

### Is the Mahoenui giant wētā endangered?

Yes, by New Zealand’s own measure: it is Nationally Critical, with one natural population that has been shrinking.

- **IUCN Red List:** Not Evaluated (NE) (Population decreasing). The IUCN has not assessed this species. New Zealand’s threat classification listed it as At Risk – Recovering in 2012, then moved it to Threatened – Nationally Critical in 2022, after survey plots with wētā fell from about 50% to about 2%. [24][25][23][18]
- Not on IUCN Red List; NZ: Nationally Critical 2022
- **Threat: Introduced predators** (6 kinds): Rats, mice, hedgehogs, possums, cats and mustelids (stoats, weasels, ferrets) eat wētā, especially females that come down to lay eggs. Ship rats are likely predators in the reserve. [11][10]
- **Threat: Losing the gorse shield** (9×): As the reserve turns back into native bush, gorse cover drops. Wētā in native bush were 9 times more likely to be killed than wētā in browsed gorse. [11][10]
- **Threat: Fire** (2–3 hours): Gorse burns easily. A fire could wipe out the whole original population in as little as 2–3 hours. [11]
- **Threat: Climate change**: More droughts and warmer weather could disrupt breeding, raise the fire risk and favour predators. [11]
- **Helping: A reserve of its own** (187 ha): DOC bought the land where the wētā were found and made it a scientific reserve. Goats were allowed to browse the gorse to keep it dense. [11][10][1]
- **Helping: Pest control** (Since 2019): Rodent control started in 2019, and traps for mustelids, hedgehogs and feral cats in 2020. [18]
- **Helping: New homes** (4 sites): Wētā now also live on Mahurangi Island, in the fenced Warrenheip sanctuary, at Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari and at Rotokare. Releases at two unfenced mainland sites did poorly. [11][22]
- **Helping: Captive rearing**: DOC and the Ōtorohanga Kiwi House, with support from local iwi, have started rearing wētā in captivity. [18]
- **Helping: Footprint tunnels** (1.4 h vs 3 h): Scientists check on giant wētā with tunnels baited with peanut butter that record footprints. Setting tunnels takes less time than searching by hand. [3]
- **Wētāpunga (Little Barrier giant wētā)** (VU): IUCN Vulnerable (assessed 1996). It survived only on Hauturu-o-Toi; captive breeding and releases on Motuora and Tiritiri Matangi islands and in 2022 it was listed as Threatened – Nationally Increasing. [17][18][15]
- **Cook Strait giant wētā** (VU): IUCN Vulnerable (assessed 1996). Its males settle rivalries with ground vibrations. [18][6]

### Giant wētā body language

- Spiny hind legs raised high: It feels threatened and is ready to kick. Back away and leave it be. [1]
- A young wētā leaping away: Nymphs may jump to escape instead of kicking. [1][2]
- Rasping while kicking (tree wētā): A warning made with pegs on the hind legs. [2]
- Still on a gorse branch by day: Resting in its daytime refuge. [10]
- Wandering through branches at night: Feeding or searching. Male wētāpunga travel about twice as far as females. [9]
- A pair together in daylight (wētāpunga): Mating: wētāpunga pairs meet at night and mate by day. [9]
- Drumming vibrations (Cook Strait giant wētā): A male challenging a rival. [6]

### Looks

- **Female (Mahoenui)**: Up to 75 mm long and 19 g, with a long egg-laying ovipositor at the tail. Dark mahogany brown or, in about a third of wētā, yellow. (Comes down to the ground to lay eggs) [11][1]
- **Male (Mahoenui)**: Smaller than the female: about 45–49 mm long and up to 12 g, with no ovipositor. Brown or yellow, like the females. (Pairs appear to stay with one partner) [1][11][12]
- **Nymph**: A young wētā is a smaller version of the adult. It moults through 9 stages and may jump away from danger instead of kicking. (About a year from hatching to adult) [12][1][2]
- **Wētāpunga (Little Barrier giant wētā)**: The biggest giant wētā: females reach 82 mm, and DOC says adults weigh up to 35 g. A pregnant female found in 2011 weighed 71 g. (IUCN Vulnerable; NZ: Threatened – Nationally Increasing) [1][15][16][17][18]

### Giant wētā quiz

1. Where does the Mahoenui giant wētā’s only natural population live? **In a gorse-covered reserve at Mahoenui.** The Mahoenui Giant Wētā Scientific Reserve in the King Country holds the only known natural population. [11]
2. Which plant protected the Mahoenui giant wētā from predators? **Gorse.** Dense, goat-browsed gorse, a weed from Europe, shielded the wētā for more than 30 years. [11]
3. How heavy was the record-breaking wētāpunga? **71 g.** A pregnant female wētāpunga found in 2011 weighed 71 g. [16]
4. What do adult giant wētā do when threatened? **Raise their spiny hind legs.** Adults raise their spiny hind legs towards the threat, ready to kick. Young nymphs may jump away. [1]
5. About what share of Mahoenui giant wētā are yellow? **About a third.** Most are mahogany brown, but about a third are yellow. [11]
6. Where does a female lay her eggs? **In the soil.** She pushes her ovipositor into the ground and lays groups of up to 100 eggs. [11]
7. How many nymph stages did scientists count at Mahoenui? **9.** A 1993 study counted 9 nymph stages, taking about a year. [12]
8. When are giant wētā most active? **At night.** They feed, move and lay eggs at night. [9]
9. Where are a wētā’s ears? **On its front legs.** Wētā ears sit on the front legs, just below the knee, with two eardrums each. [5][4]
10. Compared with browsed gorse, how much more likely were wētā in native bush to be killed by predators? **9 times.** Radio-tracking showed a 9 times higher risk in regenerating native bush. [10]
11. What is the Mahoenui giant wētā’s New Zealand threat status (2022)? **Threatened – Nationally Critical.** It moved to Threatened – Nationally Critical in 2022. [18]
12. The word “wētā” is short for which Māori name? **Wētāpunga.** Wētā is short for wētāpunga, the Māori name for the giant wētā of Northland. [1]

### Sources (checked 2026-10-16)

1. [Sherley GH (1998). Threatened weta recovery plan. Threatened Species Recovery Plan No. 25. Department of Conservation, Wellington.](https://www.doc.govt.nz/globalassets/documents/science-and-technical/tsrp25.pdf)
2. [Field LH (1978). The stridulatory apparatus of New Zealand wetas in the genus Hemideina. Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand 8:359–375.](https://doi.org/10.1080/03036758.1978.10423318)
3. [Watts C, Thornburrow D, Rohan M, Stringer I (2013). Effective monitoring of arboreal giant weta (Deinacrida heteracantha and D. mahoenui; Orthoptera: Anostostomatidae) using footprint tracking tunnels. Journal of Orthoptera Research 22:93–100.](https://doi.org/10.1665/034.022.0205)
4. [Lomas KF, Greenwood DR, Windmill JFC, Jackson JC, Corfield J, Parsons S (2012). Discovery of a lipid synthesising organ in the auditory system of an insect. PLoS ONE 7:e51486.](https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0051486)
5. [Strauß J, Lomas K, Field LH (2017). The complex tibial organ of the New Zealand ground weta: sensory adaptations for vibrational signal detection. Scientific Reports 7.](https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-02132-1)
6. [Howard DR, Schmidt AP, Hall CL, Mason AC (2018). Substrate-borne vibration mediates intrasexual agonism in the New Zealand Cook Strait giant weta (Deinacrida rugosa). Journal of Insect Behavior 31:599–615.](https://doi.org/10.1007/s10905-018-9700-2)
7. [Department of Conservation (NZ). Wētā.](https://www.doc.govt.nz/nature/native-animals/invertebrates/weta/)
8. [Farnworth B, Purdie S, Wehi PM, Painting CJ (2023). Exaggerated mandibles are correlated with enhanced foraging efficacy in male Auckland tree wētā. Biology Letters 19:20230207.](https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2023.0207)
9. [Watts C, Thornburrow D (2011). Habitat use, behavior and movement patterns of a threatened New Zealand giant weta, Deinacrida heteracantha (Anostostomatidae: Orthoptera). Journal of Orthoptera Research 20:127–135.](https://doi.org/10.1665/034.020.0112)
10. [Stilborn HJ (2019). Survival, predation, and behaviour of the Mahoenui giant wētā (Deinacrida mahoenui: Anostostomatidae: Orthoptera). MSc thesis, Victoria University of Wellington.](https://doi.org/10.26686/wgtn.17142194)
11. [Department of Conservation (NZ). Māhoenui giant wētā.](https://www.doc.govt.nz/nature/native-animals/invertebrates/weta/mahoenui-giant-weta/)
12. [Sherley GH, Hayes LM (1993). The conservation of a giant weta (Deinacrida n. sp. Orthoptera: Stenopelmatidae) at Mahoenui, King Country: habitat use, and other aspects of its ecology. New Zealand Entomologist 16:55–68.](https://doi.org/10.1080/00779962.1993.9722652)
13. [Field LH (1993). Structure and evolution of stridulatory mechanisms in New Zealand wetas (Orthoptera: Stenopelmatidae). International Journal of Insect Morphology and Embryology 22:163–183.](https://doi.org/10.1016/0020-7322(93)90008-O)
14. [Field LH (1980). Observations on the biology of Deinacrida connectens (Orthoptera: Stenopelmatidae), an alpine weta. New Zealand Journal of Zoology 7:211–220.](https://doi.org/10.1080/03014223.1980.10423778)
15. [Department of Conservation (NZ). Giant wētā/wētāpunga.](https://www.doc.govt.nz/nature/native-animals/invertebrates/weta/giant-weta-wetapunga/)
16. [Guinness World Records. Heaviest insect.](https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/heaviest-insect)
17. [GBIF. Deinacrida heteracantha White, 1842: IUCN Red List category.](https://api.gbif.org/v1/species/1725128/iucnRedListCategory)
18. [Trewick S, Hegg D, Morgan-Richards M, Murray T, Watts C, Johns P, Michel P (2022). Conservation status of Orthoptera (wētā, crickets and grasshoppers) in Aotearoa New Zealand, 2022. New Zealand Threat Classification Series 39. Department of Conservation.](https://www.doc.govt.nz/globalassets/documents/science-and-technical/nztcs39entire.pdf)
19. [Trewick SA, Taylor-Smith BL, Morgan-Richards M (2024). Wētā Aotearoa—polyphyly of the New Zealand Anostostomatidae (Insecta: Orthoptera). Insects 15:787.](https://doi.org/10.3390/insects15100787)
20. [Twort VG, Newcomb RD, Buckley TR (2019). New Zealand tree and giant wētā (Orthoptera) transcriptomics reveal divergent selection patterns in metabolic loci. Genome Biology and Evolution 11.](https://doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evz070)
21. [Gibbs GW (1999). Four new species of giant weta, Deinacrida (Orthoptera: Anostostomatidae: Deinacridinae) from New Zealand. Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand 29:307–324.](https://doi.org/10.1080/03014223.1999.9517600)
22. [Watts C, Thornburrow D (2009). Where have all the weta gone? Results after two decades of transferring a threatened New Zealand giant weta, Deinacrida mahoenui. Journal of Insect Conservation 13:287–295.](https://doi.org/10.1007/s10841-008-9170-5)
23. [Trewick SA, Morris SJ, Johns PM, Hitchmough RA, Stringer IAN (2012). The conservation status of New Zealand Orthoptera. New Zealand Entomologist 35:131–136.](https://doi.org/10.1080/00779962.2012.686318)
24. [GBIF. Deinacrida mahoenui Gibbs, 1999: IUCN Red List category.](https://api.gbif.org/v1/species/1725132/iucnRedListCategory)
25. [Wikidata. Deinacrida mahoenui (Q5252455).](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5252455)

## Measurements & details

- **Size:** 45-75 mm
- **Lifespan:** 730-1095 days
- **Leg Count:** 6

## Diet & Feeding

Giant Weta mostly eats plants and also some other insects. It feeds at night, among the gorse and shrubs where it lives.

- **Primary Foods:** Leaves, Small insects
- **Foraging Method:** Foraging

## Ecological connections

- **Eaten by:** Ship Rat (*Rattus rattus*) — Invasive rats are a major predator of weta nymphs and adults.
- **Eaten by:** [Domestic Cat](https://www.snappit.app/explore/domestic-cat) (*Felis catus*) — Feral and pet cats prey on wetas, especially in forest edges.
- **Eats:** Karamu (*Coprosma robusta*) — Weta will feed on leaves and berries from various native plants.
- **Shelter:** [Gorse](https://www.snappit.app/explore/gorse) (*Ulex europaeus*) — Hides deep in prickly gorse bushes by day, where rats and hedgehogs struggle to reach it.

## Traits

- [Wildlife](https://www.snappit.app/explore/traits/wildlife): Wildlife encompasses all undomesticated animal and plant life existing in their natural habitats.
- [Herbivorous](https://www.snappit.app/explore/traits/herbivorous): This trait characterizes organisms whose diet consists entirely or primarily of plant material.
- [Ancient Lineage](https://www.snappit.app/explore/traits/ancient-lineage): This trait signifies organisms belonging to a very old evolutionary group with ancestors dating back millions of years.
- [Forest](https://www.snappit.app/explore/traits/forest): Forest habitats are terrestrial environments dominated by dense tree cover, supporting a high diversity of plant and animal life.
- [Longevous](https://www.snappit.app/explore/traits/longevous): This trait characterizes organisms with an exceptionally long lifespan compared to others of their kind.
- [Giant](https://www.snappit.app/explore/traits/giant): Giant describes organisms or objects of significantly larger size than average for their species or type.
- [Nocturnal](https://www.snappit.app/explore/traits/nocturnal): Nocturnal animals are primarily active during the nighttime hours, typically resting or sleeping during the day.

## Collections

- [Insects](https://www.snappit.app/explore/collections/insects)
- [Insects](https://www.snappit.app/explore/collections/insects-and-bugs)

## Safety

**Danger:** 2/5 · Low

Don't touch or pick one up. It is a wild animal, and an adult may kick with its spiny hind legs. Leave it alone and tell an adult.

## Frequently Asked Questions

### How to identify Giant wētā?

Look for six legs, antennae, three body sections and the shape of the wings. Beetles have hardened front wings; flies have just one working pair. Tiny insects may need a close view before their group is clear. Insect Identifier: upload a photo and compare the visible details.

### How big is Giant wētā?

45-75 mm

### How long does Giant wētā live?

730-1095 days

### What does Giant wētā eat?

Giant Weta mostly eats plants and also some other insects. It feeds at night, among the gorse and shrubs where it lives.

### Where is Giant wētā usually found?

Gorse scrub and regenerating native forest near Mahoenui in New Zealand's King Country.

### How many legs does Giant wētā have?

6

## More Insects

- [Common Eastern Bumble Bee](https://www.snappit.app/explore/common-eastern-bumble-bee) (*Bombus impatiens*)
- [Spotted Lanternfly](https://www.snappit.app/explore/spotted-lanternfly) (*Lycorma delicatula*)
- [Brown-belted Bumble Bee](https://www.snappit.app/explore/brown-belted-bumble-bee) (*Bombus griseocollis*)
- [Eastern Carpenter Bee](https://www.snappit.app/explore/eastern-carpenter-bee) (*Xylocopa virginica*)

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Source: [Giant wētā: Characteristics, Facts & Places to See — Snappit](https://www.snappit.app/explore/giant-weta)