11005-27519 Long-legged cave weta (Pachyrhamma longipes) female in umbrella moss. A very large cave weta species with nearly uniform dark brown colouration and hind tibiae armed with a double row of 'blackberry-like' spines. Rangataua forest, Central Plateau *
11005-27403 Elegant cave weta (Pleioplectron rodmorrisi) male. A strikingly beautiful and unmistakeable alpine cave weta with vey long legs. First photographed by Rod in December 1993, on bluffs above the Kahutara Saddle, he had previously seen the same undescribed species at night on bluffs in the headbasin in the Kowhai Stream Nature Reserve - in January of that same year. It was named in 2019, and is now known to inhabit rock bluffs in the sub-alpine and low alpine regions of the Kaikōura Ranges and North Canterbury, up to an elevation of approximately 1500 m. Kahutara Saddle *
DSC_2698 'Cave' weta (Talitropsis chopardi) a small to medium sized weta commonly found in forests in small holes in trees. Recent genetic work indicates it actually belongs in the genus Pharmacus. Probably distributed through Southland, it is pale to orange-brown in colour and glossy, with rows of prominent spines down the hind tibia. This male was in Mountain beech forest. Lake Monowai *
