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Sticker of Cook Strait giant wētā
Bug card No. 0358 of 1,500

Cook Strait giant wētā

Deinacrida rugosa
Name means: “terrible grasshopper, wrinkled”
Eats: PlantsGrasshoppers and cricketsGardens and meadows6 legs

The Cook Strait giant wētā is one of the biggest insects in the world. It is a huge, wingless cricket cousin with a bulky brown and yellow body covered in armour plates. It lives only in New Zealand and comes out at night to munch on plants.

Lives in
Only in New Zealand, on a few small islands and in a wildlife sanctuary, in grassland and shrubland
Length
7 cm (2.8 in)
the biggest ones
Top speed
about 5.6 km/h (3.5 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
It looks fierce but it is not dangerous. If it is scared it kicks its spiky legs, so just watch it. It is rare and protected.
What does it eat?
It eats the parts of plants above the ground and especially likes the flowers of a bush called tauhinu.
For real!Photo of Cook Strait giant wētā
Picture by Wvermaat. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Cook Strait giant wētā about 7 cm long (2.8 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)A banana about 18 cm (7.1 in)
as long as 2 toy building bricks in a rowcould run across a dinner table in 0.6 secondsmoves 22 times its own body length every second

How big is Cook Strait giant wētā compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

When it is scared, it lifts its spiky back legs over its head, waves them and hisses by rubbing its back plates together.

2

Neither the males nor the females have wings.

3

A male may walk more than 250 metres in one night to find a female, following her smell.

4

Rats and loss of its home made it vanish from the New Zealand mainland. In 2007 people brought it back after more than 100 years.

5

During the day it hides under dead leaves, bark or stones, or in a little hollow in the soil.

you asked

Most asked questions about Cook Strait giant wētā

?How big is the Cook Strait giant wētā?

It can grow up to 7 centimetres long, which makes it one of the biggest insects in the world.

?Is a giant wētā dangerous?

No. It may kick its spiky legs and hiss when scared, but it is not dangerous.

?Where does the Cook Strait giant wētā live?

Only in New Zealand, mostly on small islands without rats.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Deinacrida rugosa
Group
Grasshoppers and crickets
Family
Anostostomatidae
Classification
Insecta > Orthoptera > Anostostomatidae
Lives on
Australia and Oceania
Also known as
Stephens Island wētā

Where the facts come from

  1. Deinacrida rugosa (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by Wvermaat. Public domain, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.

If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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