weta Report - term 3

This is a piece of writing that we did for mini beast topic when we were learning about weta. We had to write an informant report on this insect 


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Amazing weta of Aotearoa 

What is weta?

Weta are a native insect to NZ/Aotearoa.

Weta are invertebrates and they and have an exoskeleton. An invertebrates is
an animal that has its skeleton on the outside which is called an exoskeleton.
They have six legs. They have two antennae.  They have a thorax and
abdomen. They have ears on their legs.

Where do weta live?

Weta live in many different places.

Ground weta live in the ground. Ground weta live in burrows sometimes .
They  climb trees for food. Tree weta live in rotten trees and tree weta l
ive with other weta. Giant weta are only found in nature reserves. Giant
weta are  too big to jump. Weta may not look pretty but they are important
to Aotearoa. 

What do weta eat? 

Weta eat at night and Weta climb trees for food. Weta  eat plants, seeds,
little insects,snails,worms fruit,flowers,leaves but there are lots of animals
that eat weta.

Where weta live?

Tree weta lives in rotten trees, underwood and even in peoples wood
piles. Giant weta live on islands. Their too big to jump. Cave weta live in
caves on the west coast. Weta  also live hollow tree trunks.

Where do weta breed?

In spring/summer the weta mate. Tree weta males may have a group of
females sharing a hole. The male has to fight off other males with his
jaws and spiked legs. Weta breed in autumn the female weta lays
about 6-10eggs at a time. 

Social behaviour

Tree weta live with other Tree weta but other  types of weta live on their own.

Threats

Their biggest threats are rats,cats, moreporks,tuatara and humans.
Before  humans came the only threats to weta were here tuatara and birds.
The main way to protect weta is to protect their habitat.   

By Ayah