278 IOWA STUDIES IN NATURAL HISTORY 
with its offensive, odoriferous qualities, and known locally as the 
‘‘Maori bug,’’ is common in the wooded regions under the bark of 
dead and decaying trees. Another member of the family (Blatta 
conjuncta), a pale form with long wings, is an inhabitant of the 
beech forests in Gollins Valley and elsewhere. 
One of the most striking though not abundant groups of orthop- 
terans occurring in New Zealand is the family Stenopelmatide. 
Certain of its members look something like overgrown grasshoppers 
devoid of wings. These insects are commonly known by their 
Maori name of ‘‘weta.’’ While they are distributed throughout 
most of the warmer parts of the globe, they appear to be most 
numerous in New Zealand where they usually frequent the forests, 
climbing trees or hiding under loose bark; sometimes they inhabit 
fallen and decaying wood; a few species are subterranean and 
some live under stones. They are nocturnal insects and most are 
solitary in their habits; their food consists of vegetable material. 
All are good climbers, but the larger species, in spite of their 
elongate and muscular hind legs, the tibiz of which are furnished 
with long, sharp spines, are poor jumpers; the smaller forms can 
hop and run swiftly. Tegmina and wings are lacking in the New 
Zealand representatives. In coloration they are usually some 
shade of brown. 
At Wilton’s Bush we frequently came across one form, (Hemt- 
deina megacephala) in the moist, decaying remu logs where we 
were hunting for Peripatus. The head of the adult male is very 
large, the face is long and flattened and the elongate jaws give 
the possessor an exceedingly formidable appearance. A few 
measurements of a male and a female in my collection will give 
some idea of the peculiar and unusual proportions of this insect: 
Male Female 
Length of body.................. 51mm. 51mm. (exclusive of ovipositor) 
Length of head...............- 30. °° 1 
Length of mandible........ 0 a han 
Width of head at the 
Widest partei=.420 2) 1 ee ork 
Length of hind leg........ 65 ‘ 1 Na 
The males of Detnacrida rugosa, another less common though 
larger and more robust form, lack the facial expanse of this 
species. 
