Roger Frost explains; "Family trips were a great opportunity to sing songs with the kids, one such being Alouette. After several such journeys, they began to request their favourites, as best they could describe them: "Sing that song about the boy who ate a weta."

Once I had worked out what they were going on about, we decided it would make a great kiwi song, which quickly took the place of the original in our repertoire."

Chorus: Ate a weta, Johnny ate a weta, Ate a weta Johnny ate one too! Johnny ate a katipo, 'cos it bit him on the toe. Katipo, on the toe, and then a weta . . . . Chorus. Johnny ate a Buller eel, cos it bit him on the heel. Buller eel, on the heel Katipo, on the toe and then a weta . . . . Chorus. Johnny ate a bumble bee, cos it bit him on the knee. ETC Johnny ate a big sandfly, cos it bit him on the thigh. Johnny ate a possum, cos it bit him on the bottom. Johnny ate a mountain goat, cos it bit him on the throat. Johnny ate a wild deer, cos it bit him on the ear.

Dountless many other aspects of human anatomy could be linked to other wild food delights....

Eating wildfoods

Our many species of weta in New Zealand are all endangered by introduced predators - rats, stoats, cats and hedgehogs MORE DETAILS - and so you are not encouraged to follow Johnny's example.

But you can eat most of those mentioned in this song at our New Zealand wildfoods festivals. These are held each year in the South island at Hokitika (mid March), and in the North Island (mid April) at Ohakune.

                                     

Huhu grubs, whitebait fritters, possum pate, mountain oysters...

The New Zealand Weta

David Prout of Waikato University has made a fascinating weta website. He says its name that derives from the Maori name of wetapunga that was given to the giant weta. Wetapunga translates roughly to "God of ugly things." A few species of weta are found in other southern countries, but NZ has about 100 species, inhabiting a wide range of environments - FULL INTRODUCTION

The weta is a member of the insect order Orthoptera which also includes grasshoppers, locusts and crickets. There are tree wetas, tusked wetas, ground wetas, giant wetas and cave wetas. - FULL CLASSIFICATION

Wetas don't have wings. Most insects bear wings for the purpose of migration and mating. Weta mating occurs on the ground and they do most of their traveling by foot, sometimes up to 50 meters in one night. - FULL DETAILS OF WETA STRUCTURE

And there are also lots of PHOTOS OF WETAS in their different habitats.

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