Puriri moth
The puriri moth is New Zealand's biggest moth, with bright green front wings and pink back wings. It spends five or six years as a caterpillar hidden inside a tree trunk. Then it lives as a moth for only about two days.
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Fun facts
A female can lay about 2000 eggs, which she drops onto the forest floor.
The caterpillar digs a tunnel shaped like the number 7 into a tree and hides its door with silk and wood chips.
The caterpillar grows to about 10 centimetres long.
Long ago, so many moths flew to lamps that they could put the flames out.
Some moths are blue-green, yellow, brick-red or even white instead of green.
Most asked questions about Puriri moth
?What is the biggest moth in New Zealand?
The puriri moth. Females can have wings up to 15 centimetres across.
?What does the puriri moth eat?
The adult moth does not eat at all. The caterpillar eats fungi and the soft bark of trees.
?How long does a puriri moth live?
Up to six years as a caterpillar, but only about two days as a moth.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Aenetus virescens
- Named by
- Doubleday, 1843
- Group
- Moths
- Family
- Hepialidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Hepialidae
- Lives on
- Australia and Oceania
- Also known as
- Ghost moth, Pepetuna
Where the facts come from
- Pūriri moth (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Tony Wills. CC BY 2.5, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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