[3] This very large flightless wētā mainly feeds at night, when it can be found above ground in vegetation.

It has been classified as vulnerable by the IUCN due to ongoing population declines and restricted distribution.

Its NZTCS threat classification was changed to "Threatened - Nationally increasing" in 2022 because it has been successfully translocated to seven predator-free islands.

[12] Compared to other cricket species, wētā have relatively short antennae, but can deliver a strong kick with their hind legs.

[12] White's original description of D. heteracantha is as follows: Hind legs nearly twice the length of the insect; tibiae quadrangular, broadest behind, the edges armed with spines coming out alternately; spines very strong and sharp: body brown, beneath yellow: head punctured on the vertex; antennae at least 2 1⁄2 times the length of the insect: thorax punctured, with some small smoothish spaces in the middle; the lateral margins somewhat thickened: the head is not nearly so broad nor so large as in Anostostoma; the mandibles much shorter; the labial palpi have the terminal joint swollen at the end, when dry it is slightly compressed from shrinking; the maxillary palpi are very long; the three last joints cylindrical, the last longest, gradually clubbed at the end.[6]D.

heteracantha are arboreal forest insect dwellers found on Little Barrier Island which lies off the coast of New Zealand.

[12] This type of lifestyle means that these wētā do not live in the same place, but move to a new location periodically.

[3] They can be found above ground level, under loose bark, or in the cavities of mahoe and pōhutukawa trees.

Females lay eggs for the rest of their lives, but only a limited number of them are fertilised during each copulation.

D. heteracantha has a wide-band linear magnitude spectra (kHz) that they produce for defensive sounds.

[16] Feral cats were present on the island until they were completely eradicated in the 1980s,[12] and may have fed on vulnerable juvenile D.

[10] Polynesian rats (Rattus exulans), or kiore in the Māori language, are one of the top predators of D. heteracantha, preying mostly on juvenile wētās which they kill during the night.

[16] There is evidence suggesting that these rats have a negative impact on the population of these wētā, as is commonly the case with invasive rodents.

[18] Other predators include tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus), geckos, the North Island brown kiwi (Apteryx mantelli) during the night, and kingfishers and the long-tailed cuckoo (Urodynamis taitensis) by day.

[1] Since 2008, the Department of Conservation has been involved in a captive breeding and release programme to mitigate the risk of having the entire population resident on one island.

Individuals captured on Hauturu/Little Barrier Island have been successfully bred in captivity at Butterfly Creek and Auckland Zoo.

It is hoped that the released D. heteracantha will eventually build up self-sustaining populations on these additional predator free islands.