Cave Weta

Cave Weta

Cave Weta have always fascinated me, my cousins own a farm in Ahaura on the West Coast of NZ and the farm is on top of what used to be a gold miners town. After some exploring my cousins found some old tunnels that the miners used and in these tunnels are some of the coolest insects: the cave weta!

Try to picture ducking through a small cave that you have to crouch to walk through, and as you walk through, literally hundreds of weta are jumping in front of you from one wall to another and quite often they land on your face, arms, body, basically everywhere! HOW COOL!

There are over 60 types of cave weta in NZ and just at a quick glance i could tell that there was at least 3 species in these tunnels.

Cave weta have extremely long back legs and even longer antennae. if you hold out your hand, palm facing up, some of these weta's legs will extend your entire hand, now that's awesome!

Cave weta are completely harmless, the only reason they jump everywhere is simply because they are sensitive to vibrations in the air. These weta are only usually active within their cave and a few that are closer to the entrance of the cave will go and forage outside at night.

The cave at my cousins farm has a constant stream of water running through it, this make it a perfect habitat for the cave weta as vegetation drops into the stream and gets carried through the cave and the weta can eat it.

Unfortunately there are 16 species of cave weta at risk in NZ, caused by introduced predators and of course us humans! These weta can be frightening but they are harmless, so if you ever see them i urge you to remember that and to let them go and to try not to harm them.