Wetas

nitrotek

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its a kind of cricket from new zealand though I believe the are found in other crickets.If you do a search you should be able to find some pictures
 

Valael

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Originally posted by nitrotek
its a kind of cricket from new zealand though I believe the are found in other crickets.If you do a search you should be able to find some pictures


I think you mean found in other countries.....
 

Wade

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I think the are closely related to the Jerusalem's crickets of the western US.

Wade
 

Raveness

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In China crickets can cost in the thousand range as pets.. They use them to fight in championships and mean a lot to them LOL...I wonder what they'd think of how we use crickets..
 

Hamadryad

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Wetas are enormous!!!

:eek: I just got done reading a National Geographic article on Wetas and those things are monsters...they have to be one of the largest insects in the world.They are at least as big as your hand!! unfortunately I doubt if anybody is keeping any of these privately as I was reading that they are protected in a couple of wildlife preserve areas in New Zealand.
Spider Hunter
 

dangerprone69

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Wetas are the world's largest type of grasshopper/cricket. A gravid female weighed 71 grams and was 85mm in length, minus her ovipositor! They are so heavy that they can't jump, but they use the spines on their back legs as defense. Wetas are protected by New Zealand's government so it's probably impossible to get them in the pet trade. They used to inhabit most of New Zealand's North Island but were decimated by introduced predators such as cats and rats, and are now restricted to offshore islands and isolated populations.

I haven't found any info about their life expectancies, but I've read that it takes 10 months for the eggs to hatch. I've also read reports by field researchers observing maternal care in female Wetas!! Not bad for a giant cricket.
 

thedreadedone

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London Zoo has a colony as part of an endangered species breeding programme
 

Scythemantis

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When I saw this thread I thought "people can keep wetas!?!?" I knew it was too good to be true.

I'm surprised so many people aren't aware of them. You'd think any arthropod hobbyist would have heard of the world's largest. Yes, they are basically giant jerusalem crickets. Look at the jaws on this tree weta!

http://www.noah.co.nz/Gallery/images/reptiles_and_insects/Weta-6639-1.jpg

Raveness said:
In China crickets can cost in the thousand range as pets.. They use them to fight in championships and mean a lot to them LOL...I wonder what they'd think of how we use crickets..
O...kay? Why is that funny? Us westerners only generally use one or two common species of cricket as feeders. The crickets you're talking about in china aren't the same kind at all.
 
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Alex S.

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Wetas (Deinacrida, Hemiandrus, Hemideina etc.) are neither true crickets nor grasshoppers. They are usually placed within the orthopteran family Stenopelmatidae, which also includes the Jerusalem crickets (Stenopelmatus), although wetas are sometimes placed in their own family, Anostostomatidae. Wetas are not officially the largest insects by mass as various large beetles, (Goliathus, Megasoma, Titanus) also compete for that title.

Alex S.
 

Randolph XX()

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Raveness said:
In China crickets can cost in the thousand range as pets.. They use them to fight in championships and mean a lot to them LOL...I wonder what they'd think of how we use crickets..
In Taiwan, it is an official contest hold by the county government, and has already been official for over 20 yrs. A good pair would cost a lot, maybe more than our cars, but the prize of the Championship is a car as well.
Rules like no talking in the game, no touching crix, and not allowed to trick the crix by hands
http://www.swan.org.tw/nature/85_5.htm
plz use translation tool for traditional Chinese to the language ur use
 
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Stardust

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did a search on Yahoo on Weta...lolx...at least now i noe wat it looks like :)
 

Attachments

dangerprone69

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Scythemantis said:
When I saw this thread I thought "people can keep wetas!?!?" I knew it was too good to be true.
It would be very cool to have one, but it would probably be damn near impossible and incredibly expensive. The only way is if there's a captive breeding program going on (obviously not the London Zoo, since they wouldn't sell their animals).
 

thedreadedone

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having thought about it, im pretty sure that i've seen them for sale in the UK, a few years ago - but probably a different species to those in the breeding programme
 

Steven

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A Friend of mine just got these in last weekend:
guess he doesn't mind that i use his pictures ;)

hemideina crasidens


 

Alex S.

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Deinacrida, the true giant wetas, are not offered in the legal pet trade, which, at the moment, is a good thing considering they are endangered.

Alex S.
 
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