See text Anostostomatidae is a family of insects in the order Orthoptera, widely distributed in the southern hemisphere.

Prominent members include the Parktown prawn of South Africa, and the giant wētā of New Zealand.

[5] The wētā of New Zealand, such as Hemideina, are mostly herbivores that feed on leaves, fruit and flowers, but may also scavenge recently killed invertebrates.

[6] The king crickets of Australia include generalised scavengers that consume various dead and decaying matter, specialised feeders (e.g. Exogryllacris feeds on fungal fruiting bodies growing on fallen trees) and predators of other invertebrates.

[3] Anostostomatidae communicate with sound, both through the air and as ground waves through soil, wood and sand.

This may be the case but evidence for the large scale if not total submergence of continental crust in the New Zealand and New Caledonian region in the Oligocene, indicates the possibility that wētā have arrived in these locations since re-emergence of land.

: Gorochov, 1988 – Central & S. America, Africa, PNG The best-known species is the Parktown prawn, not to be confused with the well-known Koringkrieke or armoured ground crickets, which never have been in the family Anostostomatidae.

They have extremely long, curved mandibles that are functional, but seem to play no part in the eating process.