A moth the size of a rat has been discovered at a building site belonging to a primary school.
The huge creature, which was found by a tradesman outside the Mount Cotton State School in Brisbane, Australia, is reportedly so big that it can’t even fly.
Principal Meagan Steward said the moth was roughly the of two fists put together and could be the biggest moth in the world.
She told news.au: “We weren’t at school when the builders found the moth but they took some photos for us.
“We have a (year) 4-5 class that live in that new building, and the teacher showed the students a picture of the giant moth and they used it as stimulus for a creative piece of writing.
“They wrote some very imaginative stories, including Mrs Wilson (their teacher) getting eaten by the moths!”
Although the kids were visibly impressed by the find, she said that they are also used to seeing peculiar animals that come from the nearby rainforest.
This is because the moth in question is commonly found between North Queensland and southern NSW and is distinguished by its grey colour and its dark circular pattern.
Queensland Museum’s head of entomology Dr Christine Lambkin identified the creature as a giant wood moth and said it was the world’s heaviest of the species.
Dr Lambkin said wood moths weighed up to 30g and the female wingspan reached up to 25cm, while the males were much smaller in size.
“They fly very, very poorly,” she said on radio.
“In most cases when the females emerge, they just crawl up a tree or stump of a fence post and wait for the males to find them.”
The entomologist said their caterpillars were witchetty grubs, known to be consumed by traditional Aboriginal people.
“This particular species is very interesting because we don‘t know what actually happens for the first year or so.,” Dr Lambkin said.
“The first thing we do know is they’re a grub that’s about 4cm long and appears on tree trunks, is black and white striped and burrows into eucalyptus trees, then spends a year or so eating away.”
She said the insects weren’t common but weren’t unusual to come across, especially at the end of summer.
There are about 60 species of wood moth in Australia, according to the Queensland Museum, but not all are as large as the giant wood moth and not all feed on eucalypts.
The huge creature, which was found by a tradesman outside the Mount Cotton State School in Brisbane, Australia, is reportedly so big that it can’t even fly.
Principal Meagan Steward said the moth was roughly the of two fists put together and could be the biggest moth in the world.
She told news.au: “We weren’t at school when the builders found the moth but they took some photos for us.
“We have a (year) 4-5 class that live in that new building, and the teacher showed the students a picture of the giant moth and they used it as stimulus for a creative piece of writing.
“They wrote some very imaginative stories, including Mrs Wilson (their teacher) getting eaten by the moths!”
Although the kids were visibly impressed by the find, she said that they are also used to seeing peculiar animals that come from the nearby rainforest.
This is because the moth in question is commonly found between North Queensland and southern NSW and is distinguished by its grey colour and its dark circular pattern.
Queensland Museum’s head of entomology Dr Christine Lambkin identified the creature as a giant wood moth and said it was the world’s heaviest of the species.
Dr Lambkin said wood moths weighed up to 30g and the female wingspan reached up to 25cm, while the males were much smaller in size.
“They fly very, very poorly,” she said on radio.
“In most cases when the females emerge, they just crawl up a tree or stump of a fence post and wait for the males to find them.”
The entomologist said their caterpillars were witchetty grubs, known to be consumed by traditional Aboriginal people.
“This particular species is very interesting because we don‘t know what actually happens for the first year or so.,” Dr Lambkin said.
“The first thing we do know is they’re a grub that’s about 4cm long and appears on tree trunks, is black and white striped and burrows into eucalyptus trees, then spends a year or so eating away.”
She said the insects weren’t common but weren’t unusual to come across, especially at the end of summer.
There are about 60 species of wood moth in Australia, according to the Queensland Museum, but not all are as large as the giant wood moth and not all feed on eucalypts.
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Source: The Sun, News Au, Facebook, Project Noah
Source: The Sun, News Au, Facebook, Project Noah
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