''Coscinocera hercules'', the Hercules moth, is a

moth Moths are a group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not Butterfly, butterflies. They were previously classified as suborder Heterocera, but the group is Paraphyly, paraphyletic with respect to butterflies (s ...

of the family

Saturniidae Saturniidae, members of which are commonly named the saturniids, is a family of Lepidoptera with an estimated 2,300 described species. The family contains some of the largest species of moths in the world. Notable members include the emperor m ...

, endemic to

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...

and northern

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. The species was first described by

William Henry Miskin William Henry Miskin (1842 – 1913) was an Australian solicitor, politician and entomologist. Early life Born at Guildford, England, William Henry Miskin moved to Victoria, Australia at age 9 and later to Brisbane. He started collecting bu ...

in 1876.

Description

Adults have a

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the opposite wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingsp ...

of about , making it the largest moth found in Australia, and its wings have the largest documented surface area (300 square centimeters) of any living insect. 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 An instar (, from the Latin '' īnstar'' 'form, likeness') is a developmental stage of arthropods, such as insects, which occurs between each moult (''ecdysis'') until sexual maturity is reached. Arthropods must shed the exoskeleton in order to ...

. 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 ''Glochidion'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Phyllanthaceae, known as cheese trees or buttonwood in Australia, and leafflower trees in the scientific literature. It comprises about 170 species, distributed from Madagascar to the Pa ...

'', '' Homalanthus populifolius'', ''

Polyscias elegans ''Polyscias elegans'', known as the celery wood, is a rainforest tree of eastern Australia. It occurs in a variety of different rainforest types, from fertile basaltic soils, to sand dunes and less fertile sedimentary soils. The range of natu ...

'', '' Timonius rumphii'', and '' Timonius singularis''. File:Coscinocera hercules female from Arfak.jpg, Mounted Female File:CSIRO ScienceImage 415 Hercules Moth Larva Saturnidae Family.jpg, Larva

References

External links

Information
about this species at the Atlas of Living Australia.
View sightings
of this species on iNaturalist.
View images
of this species on Flickriver.com. Saturniinae Moths described in 1876 Taxa named by William Henry Miskin Moths of Australia Moths of New Guinea {{Saturniidae-stub