THE WETA AT HOME

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 123, 27 May 1933, Page 14

THE WETA AT HOME

HOW DOES HE TUEN ?

BORE-HOLE ACROBATICS

JOINTED WHISKERS

(To the Editor.) 1 Sir,—lt has pleased me to find so much 1 interest taken in the natural history oi' the weta. May I reply to some of the questions of your various correspondents? '•Mrs. Weta" puts a poser in asking how the weta goes into the burrow —forward or backward? This I have never seen, nor have I heard. I have always been puzzled myself. A similar problem confronts hie as regards the common earthworm. It goes in head first, and comes out head first; but seeing how it can attenuate itself 1 presume it is able to pass by itself eveu in its narrow burrow. There is an enlargement at the bottom of the burrow of hibernating ■worms and it may go right down to turn; I don't know. So far as 1 have seen, however, there is no enlargement in the burrow of the greenmantle caterpillar. Ido not know how pliant the weta may be, or how much space it requires for turning, but I suppose it must be able to turn, or it would stand a poor chance against a rival following it into the burrow. MUSEUM EXHIBITS. In the Dominion Museum may be seen a big matai log riddled with holes of the greenmantle caterpillar. (there called the purii-i moth);-pieces of log are also shown split open, so that the burrows may be seen, their branches, silk lids, etc. Mr. Weta is easily distinguished from Sirs. Wetn. He has the terrific head of menacing appearance; she has a small head, is quite mild-looking, almost handsome, and carries her long ovipositor, or egg-layer, projecting like a big thorn iv a gentle curve from the end of her abdomen. This is often called a sting, and because of it she has been called the bush scorpion; but the ovipositor is not • a weapon at all. A weta can jump, some species more than others; the bush-weta only three inches or so; the rock-weta something more; the cave-weta a foot and over. This last-named is quite small in the body; only an inch or so; but with its long legs and very long feelers extended fore and aft it may reach a length of 14 inches, and its feelers (antennae, or whiskers) may each have upward, of, GSO joints—a marvellous structure. The name is pronounced wet-a, the a like the second "a" in. "aha!" but not so long drawn out. BITE NOT POISONOUS. Your second correspondent last evening (the 22nd).is right in saying the weta cau bite; it is a good sharp nip, but it is not poisonous. Replying to "Weta Scare." the creatures he saw were rock-wetas, a different species from the bush-wcta, and a less prepossessing insect. They lurk under rocks and stones by day, coming out to feed on grass at .night. An earlier correspondent found wetas in the ground; this is yet another species, the giant-weta. All species belong to the same family as the cricket and the locust;, and in Australia .the cave-weta in called the cave-locust. It has sound-producing apparatus; the others arc able to make a rasping noise, often-heard at night, by scraping ithe femur of the hind-leg sharply, as one would strike a match on an old-fashioned tin matchbox, against a file-like arrangement on the sides of the, abdomen. Your third correspondent remarks, "You could not separate him from his old woman, and I thought going home he was truer to his .'pal than'a. lot of human beings that I know of in New Zealand. He was a fair sticker"—he is right; the weta will fight for his old woman, or considering her handsome appearance and his ar- j moury shall we say for his lady-love, like a knight of old. These same rock-wetas I know to be egregious cannibals. NOT SEEN TO BORE. Other people interested in the subject have cither written to me or come to see me. One informant said he had once camped for three weeks in thick manuka in order to watch the wotas; he watched all clay, often getting up at daylight, he was so interested. "Did you ever see them boring?" I asked. . , , . "Xo/* he said; "I must confess that often as I have seen them at work I never once saw them bore or start a hole; if there' was a hole they would get into it, but they never made one, and after reading your letters I began to think that perhaps they didn't bore after aIL" Another younger man came in. He had worked tor some time, in Taranaki bush, and had seen lots of wetas. He thought I was wrong; he was quite sure they bored. "Have you seen them boring?" I asked.. ■ " "No," said he; "I haven't actually Seen them; but if you go out at night and listen-you may hear 'rasp, rasp, rasp'— that's the wetal" • "Well," I asked, "what <Jo you suppose he is doing then?" "It sounds exactly like scraping wood, and I was sure that was what the weta was doing, and I couldn't find him, so supposed he was inside the wood." RASPING SOUND EXPLAINED. I explained how the rasping sound -was made, and my young friend, like a good soldier, retreated to his second line of trenches. ■ . "If he doesn't bore," said he, "why has he got that big head and those jaws? We have teased them with a stalk of cocksfoot, and they can bite it in two as if it were nothing." "Do you know the difference between the male and the female?" I aske4 him. "Yes," said he. .-,',' "Then you know it is the male that has the big head and the strong nippere; if they are . for boring, why hasn't the female got them, too?—for she has to eat as well as the male." , ' He had no reply, so I asked why the stag had horns and the doe none. Why many malee are formidable . when the females are not—because they have to light, for home and for mates. I told him how the male rock-wetas can, and do, fight; how if one gets under the guard of the other he can bite his rival's leg off as easily as the bush-weta bit the stalk of cocksfoot in two. _ "Have you .ever been bitten by one.' I .asked. him. ■ ' . "Yes, often." "Did you notice any after-eftects.' "No," eaid he, "it is a sharp nip, but there. was no swelling or pain afteraFEELERS' RADIUS OF ACTION. I asked him if he ever saw a weta with its feelers stuck out straight before it, because I said that in my first letter I had aaid the weta put its feelers into any hole first, and if sate he followed, and a correspondent ridiculed the statement, saying the feelers were always directed backwards along the back. I did not say the weta went into the hole with his feelers outstretched, though I am sure that even if lie did do so'he could let them back while in the hole, they are so supple and pliant. He said he had ecen the feelers in all directions, and when m front they picked up the insect by means of them—their whiskers they called them —because then the insect could not bite. Next day he brought a weta to show how the feelers were movable in all directions—a good male weta, which we examined with interest. He left it with me and went away, with different reelings about our mutual friend. I took the weta to the caretaker and asked her if she would let it go. She took the tin containing it, and asked, "Is it alive?" and when I said it was she opened the tin a few inches from her face, and with her forefinger stroked the weta along its side. It raised itself, elevated its forelegs as if suspecting- a natural enemy.' She was not disturbed, but went on stroking it, saying, "It's all right, old fellow, we are going to give you your liberty." Some may 6ay she couldn't be a' womanly woman; indeed, then, she is. , "Isn't it strange," said she before 6he left, "how fond eats are of. them? In the old1 house they were always bringing in wetas and eating them, too." This was the third time within a couple of weeks that I had-heard of cats hunting and eating wetas like mice; another natural enemy!—l am, etc., JOHANNES C. ANDERSEN. ■aiajrSß, , ~ ,