A single dominant axis of locomotor and sensory divergence across alternative mating strategies in Wellington tree wētā

lternative mating strategies can place different demands on movement and mate detection, potentially favouring different combinations of locomotor and sensory traits. In Wellington tree wētā (*Hemideina crassidens*), I asked whether searching males have relatively longer legs and larger eyes, or whether locomotor and sensory dimensions increase alongside weapon size. Using field-collected adults, I compared body-size-adjusted leg lengths, eye length and tympanic organ area among females and three male morphs that mature at the eighth, ninth or tenth instar. Contrary to the searching prediction, leg and sensory dimensions generally increased from eighth-instar males to the heavily armed tenth-instar morph. Most of this divergence followed a common gradient: one axis captured 88.8% of adjusted group-effect variation, although smaller departures from that axis were detectable. After body-size adjustment, correlations among the five locomotor and sensory traits were positive within every group, and larger heads were generally associated with longer legs. Tenth-instar males showed greater relative enlargement of the anterior legs than females, which mature at the same instar. Together, these findings reveal a largely coordinated pattern of locomotor and sensory divergence across alternative mating strategies in this sample. The underlying processes remain unresolved, however, since these adult measurements cannot separate the effects of weaponry from other developmental and sex differences, and positive trait associations may conceal allocation costs when individuals differ in resource acquisition.