Coscinocera hercules, the Hercules moth,iNaturalist: Hercules moth is a moth of the family Saturniidae, endemic to New Guinea and northern Australia. The species was first described by William Henry Miskin in 1876.
Description Adults have a wingspan of about , making it the largest moth found in Australia, and its wings have the largest documented surface area - - of any living insect.Robert G. Foottit & Peter H. Adler. 2009. Insect Biodiversity: Science and Society. Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Rainier Flindt. 2006. Amazing Numbers in Biology. Springer-Verlag, Berlin. They are mainly colored golden-brown and white, with transparent spots on each of the four wing sections – the coloring and patterns between sexes is mostly static. However, adult males have longer, slimmer tails on their wings than females do, making it somewhat easy to differentiate them in this way.
Their larvae grow up to 12 cm (about 4.7 in), and will weigh around 54 grams in their final instar. They are a pale-blue or green color, with red dots along their sides and yellow spines.
Diet As an adult, the Hercules moth does not eat. Instead, they survive on food stores from when they were a larva. The larvae feed on the leaves of a number of rainforest trees including Dysoxylum mollissimum, Glochidion ferdinandi, Homalanthus populifolius, Polyscias elegans, Timonius rumphii, and Timonius singularis.
References
External links
Information about this species at the Atlas of Living Australia View sightings of this species on iNaturalist