Naturalists are well aware of the number of the most incredible animals and plants on our planet. Many of the most “extravagant" species are found among insects. These include the largest grasshopper in the world, Ueta.
We are used to thinking that among insects the largest species are found only among spiders, but they can be given odds.
In size, they exceed even many types of locusts, which are also difficult to attribute to small species. Unfortunately, Ueta do not live on the territory of our country.
So, the largest grasshopper can grow up to 10 cm in length, and together with its paws and tail it can “stretch” by 15-20 cm in general. Regarding weight, large UETs often feed up to 70 g. It would seem that not so much, only a medium-sized sparrow rarely weighs more than 40 g.
By the way, their generic name can be translated into Russian as "terrifying grasshopper", and this is the largest grasshopper on the coast of New Zealand.
From time immemorial, natives were afraid and revered, since even by local standards such dimensions are difficult to attribute to ordinary ones. In New Zealand, there are about 11 species, many of which grow even more than 15 cm.
It is not surprising that they are so popular with insect lovers who keep them at home as pets.
Once you see how such a giant, sitting on a person’s finger, gnaws a huge carrot with an appetite, you can immediately determine how you feel about them. Someone, this biggest grasshopper, immediately sinks into the soul, while someone runs away screaming.
Outwardly, almost all UETs resemble to the outrage of a well-fed ordinary grasshopper, only without wings. But there is one important difference: our insects on their feet do not have such healthy and massive spikes that are used as an excellent weapon of self-defense.
By the way, why did the representatives of this family even become so big? The fact is that their ancestors came to New Zealand in those distant times when it was not yet an archipelago isolated from Australia.
Then only the smallest mammals lived there, there were no predators, but food literally lay underfoot. It is not surprising that the evolutionary process has made such hulks out of ordinary insects.
As for the whimsicality of living conditions, it is practically nonexistent: the largest grasshopper in the world can live in a forest, in a marshland, mountains or even a city park. Many Ueta are predators who do not mind eating a lizard or even a mouse, but about a third of the species eat plant food.
Without them, the New Zealand flora would have to be tight, since they play a significant role in the distribution of seeds from the plants and fruits they eat.
Only by one and a half years old grasshoppers reach puberty, and the female soon after mating lays about 300 eggs, and then dies.
Unfortunately, in the wild, the largest grasshoppers in the world may soon disappear. The fact is that they are exterminated by feral cats, dogs and rats that fell on the archipelago with European ships.