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Tree wētā

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Tree wētā are wētā in the genus Hemideina of the family Anostostomatidae. The genus is endemic to New Zealand.[2] There are seven species within the genus Hemideina, found throughout the country except lowland Otago and Southland.[3] Because many tree wētā species are common and widespread they have been used extensively in studies of ecology[4] and evolution.[5]

Tree wētā
Male Wellington tree wētā, Hemideina crassidens
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Orthoptera
Suborder: Ensifera
Family: Anostostomatidae
Subfamily: Deinacridinae
Genus: Hemideina
Walker, 1869[1]
Species

See text.

Habitat

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Tree wētā are commonly encountered in forests and suburban gardens throughout most of New Zealand. They are up to 40 mm long and most commonly live in holes in trees formed by beetle and moth larvae or where rot has set in after a twig has broken off. The hole, called a gallery, is maintained by the wētā and any growth of the bark surrounding the opening is chewed away. They readily occupy a preformed gallery in a piece of wood (a "wētā motel") and can be kept in a suburban garden as pets. A gallery might house a harem of up to 10 adult females and one male.[6]

Behaviour

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Tree wētā are nocturnal and arboreal, hiding in hollow tree branches during the day and feeding at night.[7] Their diet consists of leaves, flowers, fruit and small insects.[8][9] Males have larger heads and stronger jaws than females, though both sexes will stridulate and bite when threatened.[10]

 
Harem of 5 adult females and one male Wellington tree wētā (Hemideina crassidens)
 
Auckland tree wētā
 
West Coast bush wētā

Species

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The seven species of tree wētā are:

Auckland tree wētā, Hemideina thoracica (White, 1846)[11]
Also known as tokoriro;[12][13] found throughout the North Island apart from the Wellington-Wairarapa region.[2][5] Within this range are nine chromosome races[14][15] and there are five hybrid zones where six of these races meet.[15]
Hawke's Bay tree wētā, Hemideina trewicki Morgan-Richards, 1995[16]
Hawke's Bay.
Wellington tree wētā, Hemideina crassidens (Blanchard, 1851)
Wellington, the Wairarapa, the northern part of the South Island, and the West Coast. They have been the subject of studies of coevolution,[17][18] sexual selection,[19] hybridisation[20] and range shifts.[5]
Canterbury tree wētā, Hemideina femorata Hutton, 1898
Marlborough and Canterbury.
Mountain stone wētā, Hemideina maori (Pictet & Saussure, 1891)
The drier areas of the central South Island high country, living above the treeline. This species abandoned life in the forest millions of years ago in favour of crevices and cavities under rocks.[21]
Banks Peninsula tree wētā, Hemideina ricta Hutton, 1898
A rare species only found on Banks Peninsula.
West Coast bush wētā, Hemideina broughi (Buller, 1896)
Overlaps with the Wellington tree wētā in Nelson and the northern West Coast.

The three North Island tree wētā species are closely related[22] but each has a distinctive set of chromosomes (karyotype).[23] When the territories of species overlap, as with the related species H. femorata and H. ricta on Banks Peninsula, they may interbreed, although offspring are sterile.[20]

References

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  1. ^ Hemideina at OSF
  2. ^ a b Pratt, Renae C; Morgan-Richards, Mary; Trewick, Steve A (2008). "Diversification of New Zealand weta (Orthoptera: Ensifera: Anostostomatidae) and their relationships in Australasia". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 363 (1508): 3427–3437. doi:10.1098/rstb.2008.0112. ISSN 0962-8436. PMC 2607373. PMID 18782727.
  3. ^ Gibbs, George. "Wētā – Tree Wētā". Te Ara, Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Retrieved 2019-01-27.
  4. ^ Griffin, M. (2011). "Exploring the concept of niche convergence in a land without rodents: the case of weta as small mammals". New Zealand Journal of Ecology. Retrieved 2018-06-29.
  5. ^ a b c Bulgarella, Mariana; Trewick, Steven A.; Minards, Niki A.; Jacobson, Melissa J.; Morgan-Richards, Mary (2013). "Shifting ranges of two tree weta species (Hemideina spp.): competitive exclusion and changing climate". Journal of Biogeography. 41 (3): 524–535. doi:10.1111/jbi.12224. ISSN 0305-0270.
  6. ^ Wehi, Priscilla M.; Jorgensen, Murray; Morgan-Richards, Mary (2013). "Sex- and season-dependent behaviour in a flightless insect, the Auckland tree weta (Hemideina thoracica)". New Zealand Journal of Ecology. 37 (1): 75–83.
  7. ^ "Tree wētā". www.visitzealandia.com. Retrieved 2019-01-27.
  8. ^ Wehi, Priscilla M.; Hicks, Brendan J. (2010). "Isotopic fractionation in a large herbivorous insect, the Auckland tree weta". Journal of Insect Physiology. 56 (12): 1877–1882. doi:10.1016/j.jinsphys.2010.08.005. ISSN 0022-1910. PMID 20709068.
  9. ^ Griffin, Melissa J.; Morgan-Richards, Mary; Trewick, Steve A. (2011). "Is the tree weta Hemideina crassidens an obligate herbivore?" (PDF). New Zealand Natural Sciences. 36: 11–19.
  10. ^ Field, Laurence H. (2001). The biology of wetas, king crickets and their allies. Wallingford, Oxon., UK: CABI Pub. ISBN 9780851994086. OCLC 559432458.
  11. ^ Hemideina thoracica at OSF
  12. ^ "Wētā". Science Learning Hub. Retrieved 2019-07-04.
  13. ^ "T.E.R:R.A.I.N – Taranaki Educational Resource: Research, Analysis and Information Network – Weta (Tree) Auckland (Hemideina thoracica)". www.terrain.net.nz. Retrieved 2019-07-04.
  14. ^ Morgan-Richards, Mary (1997). "Intraspecific karyotype variation is not concordant with allozyme variation in the Auckland tree weta of New Zealand, Hemideina thoracica (Orthoptera: Stenopelmatidae)". Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. 60 (4): 423–442. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8312.1997.tb01505.x. ISSN 0024-4066.
  15. ^ a b Morgan-Richards, Mary; Wallis, Graham P. (2003). "A comparison of five hybrid zones of the weta Hemideina thoracica (Orthoptera: Anostostomatidae): Degree of cytogenetic differentiation fails to predict zone width". Evolution. 57 (4): 849. doi:10.1554/0014-3820(2003)057[0849:acofhz]2.0.co;2. ISSN 0014-3820. PMID 12778554.
  16. ^ Morgan-Richards, Mary (1995). "A new species of tree weta from the North Island of New Zealand (Hemideina Stenopelmatidae: Orthoptera)". New Zealand Entomologist. 18 (1): 15–23. doi:10.1080/00779962.1995.9721996. ISSN 0077-9962.
  17. ^ Duthie, C (2006). "Seed dispersal by weta". Science. 311 (5767): 1575. doi:10.1126/science.1123544. PMID 16543452.
  18. ^ Wyman, Tarryn E.; Trewick, Steve A.; Morgan-Richards, Mary; Noble, Alasdair D. L. (2010). "Mutualism or opportunism? Tree fuchsia (Fuchsia excorticata) and tree weta (Hemideina) interactions". Austral Ecology. 36 (3): 261–268. doi:10.1111/j.1442-9993.2010.02146.x. ISSN 1442-9985.
  19. ^ Kelly, Clint D. (2006). "The Relationship Between Resource Control, Association with Females and Male Weapon Size in a Male Dominance Insect". Ethology. 112 (4): 362–369. doi:10.1111/j.1439-0310.2006.01193.x. ISSN 0179-1613.
  20. ^ a b Mckean, Natasha E.; Trewick, Steven A.; Morgan-Richards, Mary (2016). "Little or no gene flow despite F1 hybrids at two interspecific contact zones". Ecology and Evolution. 6 (8): 2390–2404. doi:10.1002/ece3.1942. ISSN 2045-7758. PMC 4783458. PMID 27066230.
  21. ^ Trewick, Steve; Morgan-Richards, Mary (2014). NZ Wild Life : introducing the weird and wonderful character of natural New Zealand. Auckland, New Zealand: Penguin. ISBN 9780143568896. OCLC 881301862.
  22. ^ Buckley, Thomas R.; Newcomb, Richard D.; Twort, Victoria G. (2019-04-01). "New Zealand Tree and Giant Wētā (Orthoptera) Transcriptomics Reveal Divergent Selection Patterns in Metabolic Loci". Genome Biology and Evolution. 11 (4): 1293–1306. doi:10.1093/gbe/evz070. PMC 6486805. PMID 30957857.
  23. ^ Mckean, NE; Trewick, SA; Morgan-Richards, M (2015). "Comparative cytogenetics of North Island tree wētā in sympatry". New Zealand Journal of Zoology. 42 (2): 73–84. doi:10.1080/03014223.2015.1032984. ISSN 0301-4223.
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