{"id":678,"date":"2026-02-09T01:14:38","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T01:14:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.massey.ac.nz\/phoenixlab\/?p=678"},"modified":"2026-02-09T01:14:38","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T01:14:38","slug":"the-dryads-weta-and-other-new-species","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.massey.ac.nz\/phoenixlab\/2026\/02\/09\/the-dryads-weta-and-other-new-species\/","title":{"rendered":"The Dryad’s w\u0113t\u0101 and other new species"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ground w\u0113t\u0101 are those species of flightless crickets endemic to Aotearoa-New Zealand that conceal themselves in daytime in soil burrows. Recently we showed that this lifestyle has been adopted by two separate evolutionary lineages in NZ; Hemiandrus<\/em> and Anderus<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though species in these two genera are all considered to be ground w\u0113t\u0101, each group is more closely related to separate king crickets in Australia that to each other. The name Hemiandrus<\/em> was established in 1938 but Anderu<\/a>s <\/em>was formally recognised more recently in 2024<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Hemiandrus dryadis photographed by Richard Littauer https:\/\/inaturalist.nz\/observations\/259419032<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Hemiandrus<\/em> group now includes 16 described species with the recent addition of five new names<\/a>. One of these is the svelte Dryad’s w\u0113t\u0101 (Hemiandrus dryadis<\/em>) <\/a>that lives in native forest habitat in northwest South Island. Orange hued and long-limbed, this species is most similar to Jacinda’s w\u0113t\u0101 in North Island.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A second large species is Briar’s w\u0113t\u0101 which is lives in neighbouring regions in northeast South Island, but appears to be limited to high elevation habitat. It lives amongst sub-apline vegetation, which suggests it is cold tolerant and could be freeze-tolerant like other New Zealand alpine insects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Hemiandrus briarae photographed by Carey Knox https:\/\/inaturalist.nz\/observations\/262763151<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Three other smaller species are from low lying areas in Canterbury and Otago and these include a species associated with the Tekapo river area and sometimes referred to as the. ‘Tekapo’ w\u0113t\u0101. This species now has the formal name Hemiandrus fabella<\/em>, which means ‘little bean’ in reference to its small size and compact shape. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The known distribution of five new species of Hemiandrus ground w\u0113t\u0101 in South Island, New Zealand. Spots are known records, and coloured areas are recognised entomological regions.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

All of these species are threatened by human activities that modify their habitats, and predation by introduced pests such as hedgehogs<\/a>. In particular the lower lying areas of Canterbury region are subject to ongoing agricultural intensification so the current and future status of H. fabella, H. johnsi<\/em> and H. mataitai<\/em> remains uncertain. Biodiversity can be lost before being discovered, and the Sutton Salt Lake w\u0113t\u0101 H. mataitai <\/em>, which is known from just one location is an example of the fragility of the situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

REFERENCES
Trewick SA, Morgan-Richards M. 2026. Five new species of New Zealand Hemiandrus <\/em>Ander 1938 ground w\u0113t\u0101 (Orthoptera: Anostostomatidae). NZ Journal of Zoology <\/em>53:e70007. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1002\/njz2.70007<\/a>
Trewick SA, Morgan-Richards M. 2025. Two new species of New Zealand Anderus<\/em> Trewick et al. 2024 ground w\u0113t\u0101 (Orthoptera: Anostostomatidae). Zootaxa<\/em> 5666 (3): 408\u2013418. https:\/\/mapress.com\/zt\/article\/view\/zootaxa.5666.3.5<\/a>
Trewick SA, Taylor-Smith BL, Morgan-Richards M. 2024. W\u0113t\u0101 Aotearoa\u2014Polyphyly of the New Zealand Anostostomatidae (Insecta: Orthoptera). Insects <\/em>15: 787. https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2075-4450\/15\/10\/787<\/a>
Trewick SA. 2021. A new species of large Hemiandrus <\/em>ground w\u0113t\u0101 (Orthoptera: Anostostomatidae) from North Island, New Zealand. Zootaxa <\/em>4942 (2). https:\/\/www.biotaxa.org\/Zootaxa\/article\/view\/zootaxa.4942.2.4<\/a>

See: https:\/\/evolves.massey.ac.nz\/<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n


<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ground w\u0113t\u0101 are those species of flightless crickets endemic to Aotearoa-New Zealand that conceal themselves in daytime in soil burrows. Recently we showed that this lifestyle has been adopted by two separate evolutionary lineages in NZ; Hemiandrus and Anderus. Though species in these two genera are all considered to be ground w\u0113t\u0101, each group is … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “The Dryad’s w\u0113t\u0101 and other new species”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.massey.ac.nz\/phoenixlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.massey.ac.nz\/phoenixlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.massey.ac.nz\/phoenixlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.massey.ac.nz\/phoenixlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/81"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.massey.ac.nz\/phoenixlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=678"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/sites.massey.ac.nz\/phoenixlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":691,"href":"https:\/\/sites.massey.ac.nz\/phoenixlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678\/revisions\/691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.massey.ac.nz\/phoenixlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.massey.ac.nz\/phoenixlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.massey.ac.nz\/phoenixlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}