Five new wētā species just dropped

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2026-02-12 14:54

New Zealand

Hemiandrus briarae photographed by Carey Knox https://inaturalist.nz/observations/262763151

Two researchers have published findings identifying new species of Aotearoa’s native ground wētā. These newly defined species of flightless crickets range from the svelte, orange-hued Dryad’s wētā that lives in native forests in the northwest South Island, to the “robust” Briar’s wētā, which hangs out at higher elevations in the northeast South Island. An accompanying blog post by the author says that all of these new species are threatened by human activities that modify their habitats, and by predation by introduced pests such as hedgehogs.

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Other Massey University, Web page Blog post from study author

Research Wiley, Web page

Journal/
conference: New Zealand Journal of Zoology

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: Massey University

Funder: The authors have nothing to report.

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