Buller. — On the Wctas. 143 



Art. X. — On the Wetas, a Group of Orthopterous Insects 

 inhabiting Neiv Zealand ; with Descriptions of Tico New 

 Species. 



By Sir Walter L. Buller, K.C.M.G., D.Sc, F.B.S. 



[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 19th September, 



1894.] 



In Gray's " Zoological Miscellany," 1842, p. 78, there first 

 appeared a description of the great forest Weta of New 

 Zealand, under the name of Deinacrida heteracantha, White. 

 A further account of this remarkable insect was given in 

 the List of the Fauna appended to Dieffenbach's " Travels 

 in New Zealand," from which I extract the following : 

 " The length of the specimen brought by Dr. Dieffenbach, 

 measuring from the forehead to the end of the abdomen, 

 exclusive of appendages, is 2in. ; from the end of the tarsus of 

 hind leg to end of antenna stretched out, this specimen mea- 

 sures at least 12|-in. The specimen may be in the larva state. 

 The praesternum, as in Anostostoma, with two spines approxi- 

 mating in the middle ; meso- and meta-sternum deeply 

 grooved behind, with a strong tooth on the sides behind. 

 Dr. Andrew Sinclair, since my short description was pub- 

 lished in the second part of Mr. Gray's Miscellany, has 

 brought from New Zealand a specimen of this species 

 which, with its hind legs and antennae stretched out, is at 

 least 14in. long ; its head and body, exclusive of append- 

 ages, being 2-|in. The specimen is a female ; its ovipositor 

 is rather more than lin. long, is slightly bent upwards 

 and compressed through the greater part of its length, the 

 two cultelli forming its principal part being somewhat 

 angular at the base. Nearly the whole insect is of an 

 ochry-yellow colour, the end of the ovipositor and the 

 extreme tip of the spines on the legs being brown ; the 

 margins of the abdominal segments are of a lighter colour ; 

 the transversely - ridged and rough - surfaced femora have 

 many light-coloured streaks. The greater portion of the 

 dorsal part of the thorax is somewhat ferruginous. This 

 specimen was found by itself on the marsh-pine in Wai- 

 heke, in the Firth of the Thames. Five other specimens 

 of smaller size Dr. Sinclair found congregated under the 

 bark of trees."* 



The last-mentioned specimens belonged, no doubt, to the 

 species afterwards described as Deinacrida (Hemideina) 

 thoracica, White (Voy. Ereb. and Terr., Ins., 1846). 



* Op. cit., vol. ii., p. 280. 



