Happy Monday! It’s currently 11:52pm so I am cutting this one super fine but it’s been a wee bit of a busy day.

Today’s photo is of the beautiful Hemiandrus maia, the Otago ground wētā, which is a species of ground wētā endemic to the South Island of New Zealand.

Some cool facts are that they’re nocturnal and they live in burrows and come out approx once every three nights. They’re omnivorous (eating fruit and invertebrates) and mothers share a burrow with their eggs and nymphs so they can look after them (which is apparently unusual).

Edit: I just wanted to add another cool fact that ground wētā seal the entrance of their burrow during the day with a soil plug or door so that their burrow is concealed. How clever.

Anyway a super cute little dude, thanks for visiting 🙂 have an awesome week! Whoops it’s midnight hehe