Witchetty grub moth
The witchetty grub moth is a big Australian moth with soft grey speckled wings and a rusty red patch near its body. Its baby is the famous witchetty grub, a fat white caterpillar that lives underground. The moth itself cannot eat at all.
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Fun facts
Its wings are about 16 centimetres from tip to tip, as wide as a big hand.
The caterpillar grows to about 7 centimetres long.
Indigenous Australians have long eaten witchetty grubs as bush tucker.
The caterpillar lives in a tunnel by the roots and turns into a pupa right there underground.
The moth lives only on the food it stored up when it was a caterpillar.
Most asked questions about Witchetty grub moth
?What is a witchetty grub?
It is the caterpillar of this moth. It lives underground and feeds on the roots of the witchetty bush.
?Can you eat witchetty grubs?
Yes. Indigenous Australians eat them as traditional bush food.
?How big is the witchetty grub moth?
Its wings are about 16 centimetres across.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Endoxyla leucomochla
- Group
- Moths
- Family
- Cossidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Cossidae
- Lives on
- Australia and Oceania
Where the facts come from
- Endoxyla leucomochla (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Donald Hobern from Copenhagen, Denmark. CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at hello@bugwiki.app and we will fix it.
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