MonoMonday #163: Small..for a weta

I rescued this cave weta from inside the house earlier, so I put her out on the table on the deck. To my surprise, she (well I think it was a she, judging by her abdomen) starting tucking into the tiny lichens on the wooden table. So while she was having a bit of a chow down, I got my camera, macro lens and head torch and caught her having a midnight snack.

Just so you know what she looks like in colour, I've uploaded her in her natural colours in the extras.

Weta come is all manner of sizes, with about 70 species calling these islands home. Cave weta like these mainly live in the forest (and also, unsurprisingly, caves) and have extra long antennae and small mouths. This one was about 5cm long, so pretty small when you consider some of the Giant weta genus will grow larger than a mouse. Gulp.

It's wildlife galore outside tonight, I think brought on by the light drizzle, which always seems to bring the bugs out. I can hear deer calling in the valley below and a possum is currently barking like an old asthmatic out in the shrubs just off the deck. The front porch is also strewn with orb web spiders (see the other extra) and there's a really weird slug out on the deck rail by the figs that looks like a long thin fig. Weird.

Thanks to my fellow Kentish Man Skeena for hosting this months MonoMonday