Doubtless Bay entomologist Dr Jenny Dymock says Australian winged weta are in Northland to stay, but how widespread the biting insect is has yet to be determined.
Doubtless Bay entomologist Dr Jenny Dymock says Australian winged weta are in Northland to stay, but how widespread the biting insect is has yet to be determined.
Carnivorous flying insect the Australian winged weta is more widespread in Northland than first thought, after news broke last week it had been found in the Far North.
Doubtless Bay entomologist Dr Jenny Dymock said the Australian winged weta - Pteropotrechus species - had established itself in the Far North. Two specimens had been found at Cable Bay this month, one in a letterbox and the other in a children's paddling pool.
The Australian weta, also known in Australia as the king cricket, was about 30 to 35mm long. It arrived in New Zealand in 1990, she said, but until recently had only been recorded in Auckland, South Auckland and Coromandel.
The Australian winged weta has arrived in the Far North and is believed to be in other parts of Northland too.
However, since the Northern Advocate's story was published last week, it had been viewed more than 215,000 times on the newspaper's Facebook page as of yesterday, with many people horrified at the thought that the "stroppy" flying insect was now living here.
It also drew comments that people had seen the winged weta in other parts of Northland, with Waipū mentioned several times.
Dymock said she also had also received plenty of interest in the winged weta since the story was published and it was clear the insect was in other parts of Northland, but exactly how widespread was yet to be determined.
''It was recorded from Waipū last year and now looks to have arrived in the Far North,'' she said.
However, she said, confounding the issue was that people may get the Australian winged weta confused with the olive green coastal katydid, which has been in Northland for several years now and has also reached Auckland.
The coastal katydid, Austrosalomona falcata, is from Queensland and NSW, while the winged weta looks just like the NZ weta except it has wings. NZ weta are wingless and flightless.
Dymock said the olive green coastal katydid, a member of the grasshopper family, is in Northland to stay.
It was first reported in Northland in 2007 from Kaitaia and is now found in Doubtless Bay, Kerikeri and Russell. The coastal katydid is similar to a large grasshopper (up to 5cm in length) with a cone-shaped head. It is an olive green colour, quite unlike the bright green species already found in NZ. Its chirpy call is low and incessant and is heard at dusk and well into the night.
The olive-green coastal katydid, Austrosalomona falcata, is now spread throughout Northland, and is often mistaken for another Aussie invader - the Australian winged weta.
The coastal katydid is adapting well to the Northland environment and is likely to spread further south, she said.
It is not known what the coastal katydid is feeding on in NZ or how it got here, but is probably a hitch-hiker, specimens having been intercepted before. In Australia the coastal katydid feeds on flowers and fruits but is not known as a major pest.
Dymock will be studying the insect to find out more about its habits, but in the meantime Northlanders will get used to coastal katydids entering their houses - they are attracted to lights - and hearing a new sound in the evening insect chorus.
University of Auckland entomologist John Early said Australian winged weta had been found in clothes left on the line overnight, under outdoor furniture and even in garden hoses. They were a stroppy species, he said.
"Go near it and it splays its wings, opens its jaws and displays the spines on its legs," he said.
His own experience with the insect also indicated that its bite was quite powerful, although not powerful enough to draw blood.
The winged weta is described as "a golden-brown" insect.
Adults have enlarged hind legs, the males often being larger than the females. It has long filamentous antennae; rows of large spines on the fore-tibiae, and adults of both sexes are fully winged.
Adult females have a 15mm, slender, curved and swordlike ovipositor (tubular organ through which a female deposits eggs).
The forewings are soft and pliable, and wrap around the body. They extend beyond the abdomen.
