Friday, October 18, 2013

Doodle a Day: 18/10/2013

And this, readers, is why I didn't fully shut the gate at 11pm during a blustery full moon last night:



I actually adore wetas. They're spindly, clumsy and prehistoric looking, but in some species, like the Wellington tree weta above, there's a robustness that does make them look like something you wouldn't want to mess with. Like a tiger they have stripes, but they're really quite docile, and I'd say more than a few local beauties have fallen prey to the odd domestic cat or even those urban eco-terrorists, the hedgehog. I'm certainly not scared of them, but was keen enough to give this girl the space she needed - I've been nipped before by accident when one fell out of the roller door as I was opening the garage one morning (it fell down the back of my shirt, so I can't blame it), and those nippers are the real deal; used for fighting when they're not slicing into tree bark they're probably responsible for the odd dismembered weta leg I've found at the top of our (hedgehog-proof) steps.

2 comments:

  1. I really like the detail on this one!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks, Mister J! Rather happy with the minimalist rust myself (well, happier than the actual rust on the actual gate, but the weta didn't seem to mind)

    ReplyDelete