My New Zealand Minibeast Report

We have been learning about 'minibeasts' in class as part of science. We have been creating informaiton reports on a minibeasts of our choice. The minibeast had to live in Aoteroa/NZ. I worked with Noah.

Flax Snail Report

Flax snails are native to New Zealand/Aotearoa. A flax snail is a gastropod which means it is cold blooded and they are also invertebrates which means they have no spine. Flax snails can grow up to 115 mm long. They have a large shell which protects them from predators. The shell is a dark green/kakariki and brown/parauri colour. They can grow up to 20 years old.


Habitat and location


Flax snails live in broadleaf forests and scrub on the top of the North Island of New Zealand. Baby flax snails live in trees 6 meters above the ground. Despite their name they do not eat flax or live in flax.


What Do They Eat?


A snail is an omnivore which means they eat plants and meat. The baby snails eat the microorganisms that grow on the leaves. They eat fallen leaves off trees and some other small insects, worms and even some other snails. They feed on karaka, kohekohe, and rangiora leaves. They have thousands of little teeth that are very sharp which makes it easy to eat their food.


Breeding 
They lay their eggs in the dirt or behind a rock. It will take about 2 or 4 weeks to fully develop. They lay 30 to 120 eggs. Each egg is 12 to 14 millimeters long. They live in big groups which keeps them safe from predators.


Threats

Some of their predators are flies, mites, millipedes, centipedes, some caterpillars, birds, fireflies, leeches and beetles. Beetles also eat their larvae.


This report was about flax snails. Thank you for looking at our work.

By Noah and Issac. 

My animation

 Today me and my class did animation. We had to use free to use images. We also had to change the code to make it work smoother and faster. On this aniamtion their is a bit of a jumpscare at slide 30 when the slide show ends.
I hope you enjoy my animation.

Weta Informaiton Report Term Three 2019

This is a piece of writting we did for our mini beasts topic when we we're learning about weta. We had to to write an informaiton report on this insect.


click here to see our succses criteria.



   In this text you will be introduced to the weta world



                       Weta classification
Weta have over 50 species but I am only going to tell you about the seven main types of weta. The tree weta ,the giant weta, the tusked weta, the ground weta,the weta punga,Stone Weta and the Bush weta. All of them are different, like the tusked weta that is very rare to see but of course it has tusks. It uses to fight off other males when mating. All weta are natvie to New Zealand which means they are only found in New Zealand. Weta are invertebrates which means they have a skeleton outside and no spine. Most weta  shed their skin.  Weta can stay underwater for ten minutes. Weta, like all insects have antenna that is used for help in dark places.




                                         Weta Habitat
Weta live in the native forests of New Zealand.
Tree weta live in tree holes, this is called a gallery, cave weta live in the sea coast caves, ground weta live underground, the rare tusked weta are also ground insects. \Giant weta are found
anywhere on an island sanctuary. The weta habitats are being destroyed by possums and humans. mostly the tree weta, because they live in the trees which are being chopped down by us and the weta are losing their homes. 
                                   WHAT DO THEY EAT

Tree and Giant weta both eat lichen,seed heads,fruit and flower tusks and ground weta eat small invertebrates, worms and snails.That is because tree weta and giant weta are herbivores and tusked weta and ground weta are carnivores. Weta are also threatened by things such as pigs, cats and mice. Humans introduced these animals.



                               Reproduction


Weta mate in spring and summer in a sharing hole. The male weta must fight off other males with his tusks and legs. Females lay their eggs in autumn,  10 to 6 eggs at a time. To lay the eggs the female must use something called an ovipositor, it looks like a stinger but it is used for laying eggs. The female stings her ovipositor into the ground and lays her eggs in the ground so predators can’t find them, this gives the little weta a better chance at life.

 Social behaviour

     Tree weta live in groups but every other weta live alone.Weta are able to make chirping with    there legs to talk to each other. the only time all weta weta become social is when they are in mating season but even then they will fight for the females so they are still not very social. Most weta only stay with their mate during mating season then they never see each other again unless they are tree weta which stay in sharing hole in trees.



                                                                Threats


Weta threats are possums, because they destroy the trees which Weta live in. Birds ,cats, mice are also some threats to weta. Some humans that cut all the wood and use so much electricity and that also kills trees from the pollution. Auckland zoo have set up a weta release program. Some people have cleared an island free of predators. The way we can help is go outside more to stop the trees dying from pollution and chop down fewer trees so weta have plenty of places to live.   by Issac.