Newly Discovered Cave Weta Species Endangered by Coal Mining

If you have seen any of Peter Jackson's movies, such as this week's release of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey , then you have probably noticed the logo for the special effects company Weta Workshop, which works on most of the director's New Zealand-based projects. The workshop is named after a bunch of endemic New Zealand insects that look, at first glance, like crickets or grasshoppers on steroids. Weta consist of about 70 species of the largest and heaviest flying insects in the world. Some giant weta species -- "very cool, prickly little monsters," as Weta Workshop puts it -- weigh in at up to 30 grams and boast bodily lengths of up to 10 centimeters.A newly discovered member of the group--the Denniston white-faced cave weta--isn't quite that big or monstrous. In fact, the scientists who found and tentatively named the species (it hasn't been given an official taxonomic name yet) don't know how big the species grows, because only juvenile insects were found. But they do know that its only habitat could soon disappear. [More]