I was outside on the phone when the puppies dug up a Wellington tree weta. With one hand I grabbed and operated the video camera as the poor weta alternately tried to attack the puppies and head off across the deck (after I’d used a sheet of paper to lift it over the pen). From the movie I created a couple of stills:

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The weta was very impressive, though scary: it had a huge head, shaped almost like a horsehead. According to the book: Which NZ Insect, by Andrew Crowe, this is a feature of the male. It also had no fear: it reared up and extended its legs, waving its antennae fiercely in an attempt to intimidate the puppies. I certainly kept my distance. I know they’re harmless and all that, but insects just aren’t my favourite thing.

Google helped me disover that John Bokma has some excellent closeups of this type of weta: the putangatanga.

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