Fortunately for most of us this terrifying looking critter is only found on New Zealand, tough break Kiwis.
The ugly bugger is a giant weta, a kind of huge cricket or grasshopper. The giant wetas are supposed to have come about due to New Zealand’s lack of land mammals, until humans arrived there, more here. A phenomenon known as island gigantism meant that some ugly invertebrates filled the space in the food chain by the lack of land mammals, so the wetas evolved into 50g crickets over 10cm long filling a similar role to what mice do in the rest of the world.
Visit this site right here to know more about the Giant wetas and they are vegetarian, but they can still give you a nasty bite if they don’t like the look of you.
(by Edgar Allan)
