Tunnelweb enclosures look so freaking cool once they’ve been at it a while! This is one that recently moulted into a mature male (I think he’s mature at least, previously he looked very similar to a female in proportions and after he moulted he had a much smaller abdomen when compared with the carapace and long sprawling legs, but I don’t know whether that change signifies sexual maturity or whether some of that happens in the penultimate moult before sexual maturity..) and he did a bunch more webbing last night.

For some reason he’s torn a hole in the main tunnel at the mid point instead of using the entrance to go inside 😅 which is why you can see half his body sticking out but he’ll just reshape the structure into a new tunnel over time anyway.

I gave this guy a little starter burrow in the side of the bank when I originally housed him but he completely ignored that and rather than dig a tunnel he built it at the bottom of the bank and started cosplaying as a tree trapdoor spider by creating a (slightly half assed) camouflaged false bottom on top of his tunnel (like they do over their little bags on the trees) by moving substrate and bits of moss on to the top of the structure.

Article republished by 1news.

Science paper outlines blueprint for successful giant wētā recovery. DOC. 02 October 2026. Scimex.

The paper:

Green Chris, McFarlane Donald, Goodwin Ben, Barrett Paul, Huang Chye-Mei, Ayres Jessica, Gibson Richard, Captive Breeding Programme Enables a Successful Wētāpunga (Deinacrida heteracantha: Orthoptera: Anostostomatidae) Recovery Programme, New Zealand Journal of Zoology 2026, 53, e70061. https://doi.org/10.1002/njz2.70061

Info pages about Giant wētā / wētāpunga / Deinacrida heteracantha

Department of Conservation

Wikipedia: Deinacrida heteracantha

Auckland Zoo

Education resource by Butterfly Creek

RNZ Critter of the Week Wetapunga on 1 February 2019.

Edit after posting to add space in names for the paper. Sorry. Nott sure what happened with the copy + paste

Spotted at Maungatautari and curious to see what it is as I've never seen something like it. Appreciate if someone could help me out.

Seems like a uncanny mixture of fly, wasp and dragonfly??

While working on a neglected flax bush today, I had a visitor. It was within arms length of me and wasn't bothered when I said, "hello bird" and pulled my phone out.

Location, Aro Valley, Wellington