''Pachyrhamma'' is a genus of cave wēta (New Zealand cave cricket, ''tokoriro'') in the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Rhaphidophoridae The orthopteran family Rhaphidophoridae of the suborder Ensifera has a worldwide distribution. Common names for these insects include cave crickets, camel crickets, spider crickets (sometimes shortened to "criders" or "sprickets"), and sand trea ...

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

. All species are nocturnal and most use cave habitats.

Taxonomy

The genus was first described by Swiss geologist and entomologist

Carl Brunner von Wattenwyl Carl Brunner von Wattenwyl (13 June 1823, Bern – 24 August 1914, Kirchdorf) was a geologist and physicist who worked as the first head of telegraphy administration in Switzerland. He was the first to promote transnational cooperation for teleg ...

in 1888. Cook et al. (2010) found that '' Gymnoplectron'' and '' Turbottoplectron'' are synonymised with ''Pachyrhamma''. They follow W.F. Kirby (1906) and Karny (1937) in treating ''Pachyrhamma'' as a neuter noun.

Ecology

Members of the genus are detritivorous scavengers that inhabit dark, damp refugia such as hollow logs, overhangs and caves during the day. They become more active at night and venture into the surrounding undergrowth to forage. They consume various organic matter such as plant seeds, fungi, animal droppings, and dead animal tissue. They will cannibalise the remains of other dead weta, and may also attack still-living cave weta while they are vulnerable during

ecdysis Ecdysis is the moulting of the cuticle in many invertebrates of the clade Ecdysozoa. Since the cuticle of these animals typically forms a largely inelastic exoskeleton, it is shed during growth and a new, larger covering is formed. The remnant ...

(shedding their exoskeleton).

Species

When ''Pachyrhamma'' is treated as a neuter noun, species names have a neuter suffix, e.g. ''-ceras'' rather than ''-cera'', and ''-ense'' rather than ''-ensis''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q7122210 Ensifera genera Cave wētā