Found on Te Ika a Māui / North Island, north of the Manawatu Gorge
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.
