Hemideina ricta The thorax contains the front, middle and hind legs of the weta, each leg is made up of six segments; the coxa, the trochanter, the femur, the tibia, the tarsus and the pretarsus. The ear of the weta can be found at the top of the tibia near the knee joint of the front legs. The tibia of the hind legs are covered in spines, that can be rubbed against the stridulatory ridges on the side of the body to produce a sound, these can also be used as a defence mechanism against predators. Banks Peninsula tree weta can be
Femur the bone. Some species of whales, snakes, and other non-walking vertebrates have vestigial femurs. One of the earliest known vertebrates to have a femur is the "eusthenopteron", a prehistoric lobe-finned fish from the Late Devonian period. Structures analogous to the third trochanter are present in mammals, including some primates. In invertebrate zoology the name "femur" appears in arthropodology. The usage is not homologous with that of vertebrate anatomy; the term "femur" simply has been adopted by analogy and refers, where applicable, to the most proximal of (usually) the two longest jointed segments of the legs of the arthropoda. The two