Pūriri moth

Common card · No. 378606

The pūriri moth (Aenetus virescens), also commonly called the ghost moth or pepetuna, is a species of moth of the family Hepialidae. This moth is endemic to the North Island of New Zealand. It is New Zealand's largest moth, with a wingspan of up to 150 mm. It spends the first five to six years of its life as a caterpillar in a tree trunk (common host plants are the pūriri tree (Vitex lucens) and putaputāwētā (Carpodetus serratus), but pūriri larva also inhabit non-native species such as Eucalyptus), with the last 48 hours of its life as a moth.

Read on Wikipedia · Image Tony Wills, CC BY 2.5