a peek into the cave

took a few photos of our cave weta recently. can you spot her in the photo above? she was delicately cleaning her ovipositor by the little pond.

obviously the photos aren't that clear because they're from my iphone, but that's the only camera i have available when i'm working. this up close one shows the striped detail which makes them so hard to find when they're in the leafy underbrush.

if this one looks a bit weird, it's because this weta is nearly at the end of shedding his/her skin. i stuck around for about 20 minutes to see him/her emerge nearly all the way, but couldn't tell whether it was a male or female. i've since seen a male hiding in the same area so i think it might have been him.