homehome Home chatchat Notifications


Giant palm-sized moth found in Australian school

It's so big it can hardly fly.

Tibi Puiu
May 18, 2021 @ 6:30 pm

share Share

Credit: Mount Cotton State School.

Construction workers were busy erecting a new building at the Mount Cotton State School, located in the Redland Shire in the southeast of Australia when they were greeted by an unexpected visitor: a giant wood moth with a 10-inch (25 cm) wingspan.

Giant wood moths are native to the region spanning Queensland and New South Wales. Unlike most other sexually dimorphic species, the female is about twice as large as the male.

These giant moths are rarely seen by people due to their extremely short life cycle. Adults live for only a few days, during which they have to quickly make and lay eggs.

The fuzzy-looking gray moth was found on the side of the new building. “This moth was something that we had not seen before,” said Meagan Steward, the elementary school’s principal.

Although they may be huge, these moths are harmless. In fact, everyone was delighted by this amazing find, children included. Steward said that school children wrote fictional stories based on the moth, including a short story where one of the teachers is devoured by the giant insect. Yeah… of course.

Credit: Mount Cotton State School.

Giant wood moths (Endoxyla cinereus) have very short lives as adults, but they can live up to three years as larvae inside eucalyptus trees, where they feed off the plant tissue. The larvae, known as witchetty grubs, at some point lower themselves to the ground to feed on the tree’s roots. When they’re close to maturing, the grubs undergo a fantastic metamorphosis, emerging as giant moths that can weigh as much as an ounce (30 grams).

While the grubs are voracious eaters, the adult moths don’t eat at all. During their metamorphosis, the moth loses all its functional feeding organs. Instead, huge fat stores provide the energy they need to mate and lay thousands of eggs over the few days of life they have left.

While the giant moth’s wingspan of 10 inches (25 cm) is staggering, it does not have the widest one. That distinction belongs to the white witch moth, another species of moth found in Mexico and South America, whose wingspan can grow up to 12 inches (30 cm).

share Share

What Happens When Russian and Ukrainian Soldiers Come Home?

Russian and Ukrainian soldiers will eventually largely lay down their arms, but as the Soviet Afghanistan War shows, returning from the frontlines causes its own issues.

Some people are just wired to like music more, study shows

Most people enjoy music to some extent. But while some get goosebumps from their favorite song, others don’t really feel that much. A part of that is based on our culture. But according to one study, about half of it is written in our genes. In one of the largest twin studies on musical pleasure […]

This Stinky Coastal Outpost Made Royal Dye For 500 Years

Archaeologists have uncovered a reeking, violet-stained factory where crushed sea snails once fueled the elite’s obsession with royal purple.

Researchers analyzed 10,000 studies and found cannabis could actually fight cancer

Scientists used AI to scan a huge number of papers and found cannabis gets a vote of confidence from science.

Scientists Found a Way to Turn Falling Rainwater Into Electricity

It looks like plumbing but acts like a battery.

AI Made Up a Science Term — Now It’s in 22 Papers

A mistranslated term and a scanning glitch birthed the bizarre phrase “vegetative electron microscopy”

Elon Musk could soon sell missile defense to the Pentagon like a Netflix subscription

In January, President Donald Trump signed an executive order declaring missile attacks the gravest threat to America. It was the official greenlight for one of the most ambitious military undertakings in recent history: the so-called “Golden Dome.” Now, just months later, Elon Musk’s SpaceX and two of its tech allies—Palantir and Anduril—have emerged as leading […]

She Can Smell Parkinson’s—Now Scientists Are Turning It Into a Skin Swab

A super-smeller's gift could lead to an early, non-invasive Parkinson's test.

This Caddisfly Discovered Microplastics in 1971—and We Just Noticed

Decades before microplastics made headlines, a caddisfly larva was already incorporating synthetic debris into its home.

Have scientists really found signs of alien life on K2-18b?

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. We're not quite there.