My NZ Katydid Report

We have been learning about minibeasts in class for sience. We have been creating information reports on a minibeast of our choice. The minibeast we chose had to live in Aotearoa/NZ. Here is my writing. I worked with Kayden.

Physical Features

The NZ Katydid is green and it jumps very high. The Katydid is related
to weta. They’re also a type of bush cricket and grasshopper.
The grasshopper is a type of insect. The Kikipounamu/katydid are
moeao(nocturnal) and are also able to fly. Their life span can be a
little bit shorter than a year.

Habitat

The Kikipounamu like to live down low and not up high. They’re
sometimes found where there are lots of plants around. They’re
mostly found in Shrubs. They live(wahi noho) in shrubs and near
plants so they can move underneath the leaves (rau) and not be
seen. They also can live in gardens.

What They Eat

KikiPounamu’s favourite food(kai) to eat is flowers(puaka) and
flower stems. Their most common food to eat is fruit because it
lives in gardens and in the gardens there is lots of fruit growing.
Their least favourite food is other little types of insects(mu) like
aphids (aphids are a type of little green insect). Out of all the
insects they mostly eat aphids because they’re the tastiest insect
that’s smaller than them.

Reproduction

The Kikipounamu lay their eggs (heki) at night because they’re
moeao (nocturnal). Plants are a very important role in the
reproduction and lifecycle. The eggs are laid on the ground in
the soil in the gardens. The females have a long straight organ
that comes out of their body and lays the eggs (heki in the soil. 

Social Behaviour
The Kikipounamu doesn’t often live in groups but if they do live
in groups they will be very small groups. They don’t talk to
each other if they are not in a group. Only the ladies (wahine) are
in groups. Only the ladies (wahine) are social, unlike the
male (tane) Kikipounamu. The girl (wahine) katydids are very
playful unlike the  male (tane) katydids.The Kikipounamu
makes a chirping sound.

Threats

Cats are predators to Kikipounamu, also possums,rats and stoats.
Us humans have to stop destroying their homes by picking
flowers off bushes. We need to stop wrecking their habitat.
“It’s the right thing to do.”

By Kayden And Luken 

      [ZB]

My Weta Motel Writing

Last weekend on Saturday night me and my Dad made a weta motel.
We were waiting for the rugby world cup to start and it was only 8:00pm
and the rugby started at 9:45pm. I thought that I should build a weta motel
with all the spare time that I had. So my Dad had five pieces of driftwood
that I could choose from to build my weta motel. I choose the piece that
had lots of little holes in it so they can crawl through them. We cut the
piece of wood in half so that we could place the pieces of wood on top
of each other. My dad had a sheet of rubber so we cut it down so that
\we could screw it onto the end of the wood and use it as a hinge so that
you can open and close the lid. You can look inside and see if there are
any weta or other insects  inside. To make it so that the pieces of wood will
go together we had to cut some pieces of the side so that it evenly
matched together. Today Sam and I took the weta motel up the
bush track, we covered it up with mud, leaves and sticks so that it smells
like the bush and blends in. In a few weeks time we can go back up and
see if there are any weta in there.

My Dirt bike Animation

Today in our class we have been learning to create animations. We have changed up the code so that it'll go faster and will loop. We changed the word false to true inside the code to make it loop. We had to use free to use images. I hope that you enjoy my dirt bike animation.

Weta Report Term 3

WALT: This is a piece of writing that we did for our minibeasts topic when we were learning about weta. We had to write an information report on this insect.

Click here to see my success citeria 



The physical features of a weta

Weta are insects that are native to New Zealand. The biggest type of weta is the giant weta. The giant weta is the world's heaviest reported insect. Any type of Weta have ears on their front legs near their turi (knees). It helps them listen for smaller insects to eat.  The giant weta can grow up to 10 cm long and other weta are a little bit smaller. A weta has it’s spine on the outside of it’s flesh and it’s called an exoskeleton. The exoskeleton is there so that the weta can breath through it. These weta might not look helpful but they help us humans survive. Most wetas are omnivores or predators. Weta could survive if nuinga(lots) of people die out but if weta and other insects die out nuinga(lots) of people wouldn’t be able to survive.

A Wetas Habitat and Location

There are different types of weta and each different type of weta kaiao (live) in different places. The tree weta live in rotten logs, in hollow planks and in the forest in trees. The cave weta lives in caves near the seaside. The tusked weta lives on the ground since it can kaiao in extreme weather. The Giant weta lives in alpine trees and rocks where the Australian plate and Taitonga (South) Island plate meet AKA the alpine fault line. If you found a weta, it’s most likely to be a tree weta.

What Do Weta Eat

Every type of weta eats something different. The tree and giant weta mostly eat lichens, leaves, flowers, seed-heads and fruits. Most other types of weta like the cave weta and tusked weta eat grass and carrots if they’re just nohu tu (sitting) around. If you found a weta and it was eating a kopura (seed) it will be feeding time.

When Do Weta Breed

When do weta lay their eggs? The weta do not look after their young. They just leave and they have to start their lives by themselves. It’s not likely for you to see a weta egg because the weta lay their eggs at night and in the ground. A weta will breed in the Aroaromahana (Spring) or in the Arawheu (Summer). Weta breed at night because they’re nocturnal.



Are Weta Social
Do weta live on there own or in groups? The giant weta seems to be less social than all the other weta like the tree weta, cave weta and the ground weta. Only the tree weta sometimes live in small groups but every other type of weta live on their own. Sometimes the Taurawhi (male) weta fight for the Uwha (females). Most weta live on their own except during breeding season.

Weta Threats

What are the weta threats? The weta threats were just birds and tuatara. Humans have introduced the ngeru (cats), hedgehogs, Kiore (rats), weka, kiwi and mustelids (mustelids are like little stoats). Weta look after themselves by eating food, living in their habitat and breeding. Humans have impacted on weta by destroying their homes, and that means they can’t breed or eat so they will just die out and become extinct. We need to protect weta habitats so they can survive.

All My Information
This is all of my information that I've learnt about weta. Thank you for reading my work and I hope that you have learnt something.                     
                                   By Luken