BIG AUSTRALIAN MOTH.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5108, 30 March 1927, Page 3

BIG AUSTRALIAN MOTH.

IMPORTED INSECT PEST. DANGER TO OUR TIMBER. A few days ago a boy proceeding t« the Hataitai School, Wellington (aays the "Dominion”), found fluttering on the roadside a moth of exceptional size. It had a wing span »f about six inches and a large and heavy body about four inches in length. It died 1 shortly after .the boy reached school it appeared to be an unknown species (no one at the school knowing anything about it), it was sent tp the curator of the Turnbull Library, Mr Johannes C. Andersen, who forwarded it to the Dominion Laboratory for classification. The headmaster of the Hataitai School (Mr Robertson) has since been informed that the moth is the heavif est bodied moth in the world, and is a native »f Australia, belonging to the family known as Xyleutes boisbuvali. A few other specimens of this moth have reached the laboratory from other parts of the Dominion, and it is surmised that they reach New Zealand in the grub state in hardwood timber, which comes from Australia for use as telegraph and power transmsision poles. The larvae feeds [on the hardwoods, but generally speaking the climate of New Zealand is too rigorous for them and few of them survive, even if they reach the moth stage. The explanatory letter adds: “It i« to be hoped this huge moth does not become established here, as it would mean another very serious addition ft> pests.”