Massive giant weta insect as big as your hand

This is a giant weta, an insect found on New Zealand's Little Barrier Island. But this isn't just any giant weta. It's reportedly the largest ever found, weighing in at 71 grams.

"She enjoyed the carrot so much she seemed to ignore the fact she was resting on our hands and carried on munching away," (said Mark Moffet, a former US park ranger who found it in a tree.)
"She would have finished the carrot very quickly, but this is an extremely endangered species and we didn't want to risk indigestion.
"After she had chewed a little I took this picture and we put her right back where we found her."

"World's biggest insect is so huge it eats carrots"

UPDATE: From Stuff.co.nz:

Landcare Research entomologist Dr Thomas Buckley says, based on Moffett's photos, the weta's size looks about average for its species.
"The species itself is the heaviest in the world but whether that individual is the heaviest you couldn't really say.
"From the picture it's a female, but it just looks like an average sized one of that species."

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

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http://artdonovan.typepad.com Art

To paraphrase Tommy Lee Jones, “That’s a BIG weta”!
http://twitter.com/J_Champagne Jonathan Champagne

AHHHHHH!!!!
- M Carlson
  
  My thoughts exactly. It’s the same response when I see this…
Hanglyman

Awww, what a cute little bunny. Now, where did I put my glasses?
stayzuplate

The story includes a nice lesson on evolution: “Their size is an example of island gigantism, which is a biological phenomenon leading to a larger size than their mainland relatives because of their isolation and lack of large predators.”
spacemunky

I just picture Bear Grylls biting into that big, squishy abdomen.
corydodt

DahhhaHAAHAAHHHHAAAHhhhhh.

I was going to come over here and snark on the post title, but that thing really IS massive and giant.
pumuckl

That gives a whole new meaning to “Bugs Bunny”.
blepom

For a gargantuan insect, it’s kind of cute.
BrotherPower

Maybe this exposure will finally make “WETA” an acceptable word in Words With Friends. That shit frustrates me weekly!
http://www.facebook.com/nickgold2012 Nick Gold

I have to say, that thing is actually kind of cute.
EH

Another Chrome crash on Boing Boing.
RJ

Wetas are usually only big enough to occupy most of an average man’s palm (or roughly the size of a fat hamster). Finding this girl is like finding a wolf as big as a bison. I hope she’s prolific; the weta species could use some more robust members among them.

For sheer personality, though, I still like the slightly smaller kabutomushi, or Japanese rhinoceros beetle.
Raum187

Few corrections. This Giant Weta is not the “largest ever found”, and does not weigh 71 grams. NZ experts say this appears to be an average sized Giant Weta and that the largest one recorded was 71 grams (not THIS one). The guy is an ex American park ranger, not a New Zealand DOC ranger – he’s a tourist in this context.

Love that photo though…
- David Pescovitz
  
  I updated the post with more info but can you please point me to the source that says the one above is not 71 grams?
  - Raum187
    
    The Stuff article you linked to in the update.
Donna Hamilton

The Giant weta certainly are HUGE, but common garden weta can be found throughout NZ. The name weta comes from the Maori word “wetapunga” which means God of ugly things.
Antinous / Moderator

I don’t understand why anyone finds this more alarming than a chipmunk, an animal of comparable size and bite power.
- Raum187
  
  I’m guessing the fur. People like the fur.
- Jean Deaux
  
  well…….chipmunks can sing.
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    well…….chipmunks can sing.
    
    So can crickets, and they never pander to their audience by trying to sing hip hop.
    - retchdog
      
      the chitinous spikes on its legs? the glossy beaded eyes? the superficial resemblance of its exoskeleton to manufactured armor? the extended legs for possibly propelling itself through the air at a distance many times its own length?
      - jane doe
        
        eww, shut up. this is bad enough already.
    - Snig
      
      Wait until the Jiminy Cricket reboot. In 3D. At least.
Palefire

I run into one of those things and I’ll “weta” my pants.

Rimshot, please.
- TokenCapitalist
  
  You earned it.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  Okay
http://twitter.com/dexitroboper dexitroboper

That’s not a weta, this is a weta.
papiermeister

Not a fan of giant bugs of any sort. Someone will need to rock me to sleep tonight. Cannot unsee…
zuben

Taking the carrot away from the very large weta = baaaad idea.
- t3kna2007
  
  I was thinking the exact same thing. Leave a large, hungry weta behind you as you walk away, with it up in a tree so it has a height advantage as it fixes its angry eyes on the exposed skin of the back of your neck? Nooo-nooo-nooo.
procrustinator

I want one
daemonsquire

Wait a second: can’t anyone tell by the pixels this is fake?!? And isn’t “Weta” Peter Jackson’s NZ special effects shop? Hmph. I’m not buying it. This is surely some viral campaign for an upcoming giant insect invasion pic! And don’t go trying to tell me the SPFX shop was named after the bug…
- http://twitter.com/simon_w Simon Welsh
  
  Given that Sir Peter Jackson is rather afraid of Wetas, I doubt he’ll be doing any cinematography involving them.
  - Paul Charteris
    
    There were dozens of Wetas in King Kong – and they were huge. It was kind of an inside joke for New Zealanders.
Mister44

Things like this is why man harnessed fire. And high capacity magazines.
SoItBegins

So that’s what Weta Workshop is named after!
CountZero

Wow! Just… wow. I’ve got a photo I took last year of a Great Green Cricket, a native British insect sat on my hand, which was probably around two inches long, and I thought that was pretty big.. One of these Weta would have probably eaten it.
Syn -

Is that a weta in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?
Donna Hamilton

see this video about finding the tree/bush weta;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tC3kRsYqDxY