The Weta, an insect native to New Zealand, is also referred to the King Cricket in South Africa and North America. They have related species located in Australia, Madagascar, and North, Central and South America. This large insect has the physical appearance between a cockroach and a cricket with large legs. They are found in alpine, forests, grasslands, caves, shrub lands and urban gardens. They are nocturnal and flightless. The female Weta will lay between 200 and 300 eggs in one sitting. These eggs hatch 3-5 months later. There are five major species of the Weta and most eat other invertebrates, with the exception of the Tree and Giant Weta which have evolved to eat mainly leaves, flowers and fruit. They bite, but most often inflict painful scratches. When approached by their predators, cats, hedgehogs, rats and humans, the Weta will raise its hind legs in the air and retreat. The Giant, Tree, Tusked and Ground Weta are grouped in the family Stenopelmatoidea with Leaf Rolling Crickets, and are most closely related to Jerusalem Crickets found in North America. The Cave Weta is grouped in the family Rhaphidophoridea along with Cave Crickets, Camel Crickets and Sand Treaders. They are not considered a major pest and are growing extinct in parts of New Zealand; however they are large enough to give someone a fright when first noticed. Below are the five major species of the Weta and their identifying marks.

Giant Weta

Picture of Giant Weta

There are eleven different species of the Giant Weta. They have a body length of four inches not including its legs and antennae. One giant Weta that was captured weighed a record 70 g making it the heaviest insect in the world and heavier than the sparrow. The giant Weta is not very social and is classified in the genus Deinacrida which means terrible grasshopper. They live underground and under rocks and floor debris during the day and hunts for food at night. When disturbed, they get very aggressive, hisses, raises its body and sways from side to side. The giant Weta is so large it is unable to jump.

Other species of the giant Weta are the Poor Knights Weta, Wetapunga, Stephens Island Weta, Kaikoura Weta and the Nelson Alpine Weta.

The Poor Knights Weta is 8 inches in size and located on Poor Knights Islands off the coast of New Zealand. They live in trees and lay their eggs in the ground. They are nocturnal and herbivorous and listed as a threatened species.

The Wetapunga is a stoutly built "cricket" with a large head and sturdy spines on its back legs. They are found on Little Barrier Island off the coast of New Zealand. They eat plants and fungi and are a threatened species. The name Wetapunga means "got of ugly things" or "monsters of the night".

The Kaikoura Weta was discovered in 1988 and lives on the high rocky surfaces of the Kaikoura mountains in New Zealand.

The Nelson Alpine Weta is the smallest of the giant Wetas weighting around 7 grams.

Tree Weta

Picture of Tree Weta

The Tree Weta is mostly found in urban settings. They mainly live in holes in trees formed by beetle larvae. A large hole will hold up to ten females and one male. These nocturnal insects eat plants and small insects. Males have a larger jaw than the female and hiss and bite when threatened. The tree Weta has ears on its legs used to sense vibrations. Females have a large ovipositor that resembles a stinger. There are seven species of the Tree Weta: Auckland Tree Weta, Wellington Tree Weta, H. trewicki, H. temorata, H. ricta, West Coast Bush Weta, and the Mountain Stone Weta.

The Auckland Tree Weta has a body plate behind its head that is a pinkish white color. They communicate by moving their thighs against the sides of their abdomen like grasshoppers and crickets. The Auckland Tree Weta shelters in trees, in moth tunnels or in large wood-borer galleries they have enlarged. They are found on the North Island in New Zealand. Adults have large black heads and females have a brown trim around their head.

(Picture of Auckland Tree Weta)

The Wellington Tree Weta is identified by its large brown head. They also have white pad behind their claws.

The H. trewicki is found in Hawkes Bay and looks similar to the Wellington, but has a pale shield shaped structure directly behind its head and also has dark black lines on its body.

Tusked Weta

The Tusked Weta is identified because the males have long curved tusks projecting from their jaws. They are used for pushing opponents around. Females are similar to the ground Weta. The tusked Weta eats worms and insets. There are three species of the tusked Weta: Northland tusked Weta an insect that resides in tree holes, the Middle Island Tusked Weta, an insect that lives in the ground and covers its burrow with leaves and the Raukumara Tusked Weta that was discovered in 1996 and is not endangered.

(Tusked Weta Picture)

Ground Weta

The Ground Weta is the smallest of all Wetas and hides in burrows in the ground during the day concealing the exit of their hole. They hunt at night and eat invertebrates and fruit. They do not have ears on the front of their legs like other Wetas. They also do not have the spiky back legs like other Wetas. To attract mates, they drum on their abdomens. (Ground Weta picture)

Cave Weta

There are sixty species of the Cave Weta. They are identified by their extra long antennae, long legs and deafness like the ground Weta. They are grouped in the family with cave crickets, camel crickets and sand treaders, making them a distant cousin to the other Wetas. The Cave Weta can live up to seven years. They live in dark places under longs and under houses. (Cave Weta picture)

Grasshoppers never eat other insects. They are called herbivores because they eat only plants. Grasshoppers are not picky about the plants they eat. They will eat the grass in your yard and they will eat the crops you have in your field. Usually they eat grasses, leaves and cereals.

More input

Grasshoppers are insects with jaws for them to chew their food.

They eat carrots, cabbage and other plants in your backyard.

It is also a pest to some farmers since it eats their crops.

No they don't they are vegetarian. Herbivores they eat green plants, grain and other plant matter
A grasshopper lives mainly in grasslands and forests. The grasshopper's diet is grass or other plants it can find.
Here's what I found on WikiAnswers:To take care of a grasshopper you have to give it plants and to eat and hop on, for grasshoppers do not eat insects like mantis's and wetas. put dirt and plants at the bottom of the cage which should be a jar or fish tank. make sure there are air hoes for breathing. For water soak a cotton ball often.

There are well over 1 million different known species of insects in the world,

and some experts estimate that there might be as many as 10 million.

All these species are divided up into about 32 orders, depending on whose taxonomic system you use, of which, the largest is the Beetles, or Coleoptera, with 125 different families and around 500,000 species they are an incredibly diverse group of animals. In fact, one in every four animal species on this planet is a beetle.

Well, everywhere on land anyway, very few insects have colonised the sea, though some like the Marine Flies (Halobates sp.) and the Seashore Collembolan, Anurida maritma, live on the surface. Also the larva of a small number of True Flies (Diptera) and Beetles (Coleoptera) live beneath the surface, mostly in rockpools.

On the land however there isn't anyhere you can go that you can't find some insects, even in the frozen extremes of Arctica and Antarctica you will find some insects alive and active during the warmer months.

You will find that insects are ubiquitous, they are in the soil beneath your feet, in the air above your head, on and in the bodies of the plants and animals around you, as well as on and in you.

Some of the most adventurous insect are the Brine Flies (Ephydra), you can find them living in the strangest places including, the larva of Ephydra hyans in Mono Lake California which is nearly as salty as the Dead Sea, the larva of Psilopa petrolei in pools of crude oil also in California, and the adults and larva of Scatella thermarum in the hot springs of Iceland, the adults live on the mats of algae which float on the water's surface, and the larva live beneath the mats and in water, which is as hot as 48 degrees Celsius, which, for most people, is too hot to put your hand into.

There are several different ways of measuring the size of an insect, most people would consider the largest insect to be the bulkiest, in this case the champion insect is the Acteon Beetle (Megasoma acteon) from South America the males of which can be 9cms long by 5cms wide by 4cms thick, however there is a serious challange for heaviest insect in the world in the form of the True Wetas from New Zealand. For instance a gravid female Deinacrida heteracantha can weigh as much as 70 grams.

Another competitor for the title is the extemely rare South American Longhorn Beetle Titanus giganteus, these giants can have a body length (not including antennae) of over 16cms (6.5 ins), other longhorn beetles are nearly as large and may look even bigger because of their longer legs i.e. Xixuthrus herosfrom Fiji. Another beetle, Dynastes Hercules is also well known for reaching 16cms in length, though it is not nearly a heavy.

However other insects are larger in other ways, the longest insect in the world is the Stick-Insect Pharnacia kirbyi, the females of which can be over 36cm long. Some living lepidoptera have wingspans as great as 32cm and an area of over 300 square cms.

There are an incredible number of very small insects in the world, far more than there are giants. Many beetles are less than one millimetre in length, and the North American Feather-winged Beetle Nanosella fungi, at 0.25mm, is a serious contender for the title of smallest insect in the world. Other insect orders which contain extremely small members are the Diptera (True Flies) and the Collembola (Springtails).

There are also many small Hymenoptera, especially in the Superfamily Chalcidoidea, such as the Fairy Flies, of the family Myrmaridae, of which Alaptus magnanimus, at 0.21mm long, was once thought to be the smallest insects in the world. However another Hymenopteran parasite now holds the record. Megaphragma caribea from Guadeloupe, measuring out at a huge 0.17 mm long, is now probably the smallest known insect in the world.

The incredible size of individual species of insects is only dwarfed by the incredible numbers they sometimes occur in. In 1943 Profeesor Salt found that an acre of British pastureland near Cambridge supported over 1,000,000,000 Arthropods of which nearly 400,000,000 were Insects and 666,000,000 were Mites the remaining 38,000,000 were Myriapods (Centipedes and Millipedes).

Some Scientist have recorded the otherwise inconspicous Springtails at densities as high 100,000,000 per square metre in the ordinary farm soil of Iowa U.S.A.

In Africa swarms of Orthoptera ( Desert Locusts Schistocerca gregaria) may contain as many as 28,000,000,000 individuals. Although each Locust only weighs about 2.5grams when they are all added up together this comes to 70,000 tons of locust.

Ants are social animals and live in colonies, sometimes these colonies may contain only 50 or so individuals, but, one supercolony of Formica yessensis on the coast of Japan is reported to have had 1,080,000 queens

and 306,000,000 workers in 45,000 interconnected nests.

Some Scientist think that 30% of the animal biomass of the Amazon Basin is made up of ants,

and that:-- 10% of the animal biomass of the world is ants,

furthermore they believe another 10% is composed of Termites.

This means that 'social insects'

could make up an incredible 20%

of the total animal biomass of this planet.

Humans are mammals. The word mammal comes from the Latin mamma, meaning breast, because female mammals produce milk to nurse their babies. Nearly all mammals give birth to live young, and all are warmblooded, maintaining a near-constant body temperature regardless of environmental conditions. They are vertebrates and use lungs to breathe air and are the only animals that grow hair. Mammals probably appeared on Earth some 200 million years ago.

This answer was plagiarized from http://earthlife.net/insects/six01.HTML