A giant among giants has been found - a record holder 71 grams or about 1/20th of a pound.
Mark Moffett, a 53-year-old former park ranger tracked the giant weta up a tree. He lured the thing to the ground offering and feeding it a carrot.
When rats arrived in New Zealand on British ships - the weta was nearly wiped out. Finding this giant female gave Mark and his buddies the thrill of a lifetime, the unbridled joy only an aging Entomologist could get - feeding it a carrot, and taking all kinds of goofy pictures stinger side down, of course.
Mark carefully placed the monster back on its tree-high perch, being careful, as he noted, not to let it over indulge in carrot - or get fantasies it might be brought back to a warm lab to live out its days. Mark wants it to breed, and breed it shall - large, lumbering, over-sized, belly crawling Giant Weta babies.
