Deinacrida elegans
| Giant weta | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Clade: | Euarthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Orthoptera |
| Suborder: | Ensifera |
| Family: | Anostostomatidae |
| Genus: | Deinacrida |
| Species: | D. elegans |
| Binomial name | |
|
Deinacrida elegans Gibbs, 1999 |
|
Deinacrida elegans is a species of weta in family Anostostomatidae. It is endemic to New Zealand.
Deinacrida elegans is a species of weta, one of New Zealand’s largest terrestrial invertebrates. The genus Deinacrida comprises a diverse group of 11 species of weta, with D. elegans being one of the seven species that lives in the South Island. Their size and description can be associated with their slow life history and speciation. This particular species is moderately large but is outstanding in colour patterns and is unique to the rocky bluffs on the eastern side of the Southern Alps.
D. elegans has a handsome appearance, hence the Latin name elegans, meaning neat and elegant. This species of weta is moderately large, long-legged and steel grey with distinctive red, black and white banded femora. The male D. elegans weighs 80g, with the considerably larger female weighing between 114-165g. D. elegans has a brown, mirror-patterned thorax with smooth, rounded, pale grey edges. Black antenna, 2.5 times the total body length, extrude from the striped greyish brown head capsule.
Between juvenile and adult stages, D. elegans change little in their appearance other than their colouration. The juvenile weta are largely black with white spines and leg joints, and as they mature, they assume their dark brown, red and grey pigmentation.
This species of weta is moderately large, steel grey, and long shaped with distinctive red, black banded femora with slender hind tibiae with 7 or 8 fixed spines along with a single articulated distal spine in the inner row.
Weight: Male 80g, females 114-165g.
Head: Flagellum of antenna black, head capsule including mandibles.
Thorax: Prosternum that has two moderate blunt spines; meso-and metasternum considerably wide, but do not have distinct lateral lobes.
Legs: Relatively slender and long; fore-and mid-coxae with a lateral spine.
Abdomen: Tergites are smooth and almost shiny with feeble transverse striae, in centre, tan brown with pale grey edges, with no trace of a mid-dorsal ridge.
The weta's body is built with a structure of repeated cylindrical segments or units. These are divided into three sections:
1: one section for receiving information about its environment and for feeling (the head).
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Wikipedia