Friday Eco-fact: The Hercules Moths, the World’s Largest Moths

Australia has plenty of unique plant life such as the world’s tallest flowering plants plus unusual mammals such as the world’s only monotremes, and extremly interesting reptiles, but Australia is also home to some unusual insects as well to include the world’s largest moth:

The Hercules Moth of North East Queensland is the World’s largest moth (an unconfirmed Innisfail specimen had a 36 cm wingspan!). Reports of the Atlas Moth are probably from mis-identification of the Hercules Moth. In Australia, the smaller Atlas Moths are rare and confined to the Darwin area.

Here is a great picture of this incredible Hercules Moth that should give everyone a good idea of how big these things really are:

Measuring 26cm wing tip-to-wing tip, this Hercules moth stopped in at Sue and Iain Ralston’s home near Port Douglas, north of Cairns, for two days, fascinating their nature loving sons Sam and Mitch.

The giant insects have a 10-day lifespan and are attracted to veranda lights, Australian Butterfly Sanctuary manager Anja Bakker told The Cairns Post yesterday.

“We’re really lucky that we’ve got the largest moth flying around here,” she said.

“They come out throughout the year but they are more frequent in summer months.” [Cairns.com]

An amazing creature and just another example of the incredible biodiversity in Australia.