Puriri moth damage
Aenetus virescens (Doubleday)
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Hepialidae
Size range
- A large caterpillar, up to 70–80 mm long
Distribution
- New Zealand native. North Island
Life History
- Caterpillars are long lived, probably 7 years
- Eggs are scattered by the adult over the forest floor
- The young caterpillars live at first in the leaf litter on fungus and rotten wood, then climb the trunk of a tree (often puriri or putaputaweta) and bore into the trunk
- They live in a tunnel in the trunk of the tree feeding on callous tissue that the tree is induced to produce around the wound at the entrance of the tunnel.
- The tunnel entrance is protected by a tough silken cover
