{"id":579113,"date":"2026-04-03T07:24:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T07:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/579113\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T07:24:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T07:24:13","slug":"scientist-in-the-australian-bush-stumbles-upon-biggest-moth-hes-ever-seen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/579113\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientist In The Australian Bush Stumbles Upon Biggest Moth He’s Ever Seen"},"content":{"rendered":"

The other day, Ben Parkhurst, a regional ecologist for Bush Heritage Australia<\/a>, went out to Hamelin Station Reserve to do vegetation monitoring. As he was taking some measurements, he was shocked to notice an enormous moth sitting on an old acacia tree.<\/p>\n

\u201c[I ran] the tape next to it and then all of a sudden [I was] like, \u2018Ah!\u2019\u201d Parkhurst told The Dodo.<\/p>\n

\"oneBen Parkhurst<\/p>\n

The moth, who was longer than Parkhurst\u2019s sunglasses, was blending in perfectly with the bark. The insect\u2019s expert camouflaging explained why Parkhurst only spotted the insect when he was right next to the tree.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was hard to notice,\u201d Parkhurst said.<\/p>\n

In Parkhurst\u2019s work as a regional ecologist, he spends lots of time outside, getting to know the many unique animals who live in Bush Heritage\u2019s conservation reserves. But he\u2019s never seen a moth quite this huge before.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve seen ones nearly as big, but that\u2019d definitely be the biggest I\u2019ve seen so far,\u201d Parkhurst said.<\/p>\n

Ben Parkhurst<\/p>\n

While it was difficult to identify this insect\u2019s exact species, Parkhurst was able to determine that the moth belonged to the Cossidae family and most likely the genus Enoxyla. The heaviest moth in the world, who weighs up to 32 grams, belongs to the same genus, and the moth Parkhurst spotted appeared to be almost as heavy.<\/p>\n

\u201cAustralia\u2019s smallest bird species is a little thornbill called the weebill, and that weighs on average five or six grams,\u201d Parkhurst said. \u201cSo it\u2019s a moth that weighs as many as a whole bunch of these little thornbill birds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like other moths in this family, the one Parkhurst spotted is a wood borer, which means they lay eggs and the larvae bury themselves in the bark. The animals spend one to two years in their larval stage before metamorphosing into their adult winged forms.<\/p>\n

Getty Images \/ TED MEAD<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201c[W]hen they move out of that larval stage and become that giant moth, they only live for a week,\u201d Parkhurst said. \u201cThey don\u2019t have mouths and they don\u2019t eat, so they\u2019re just trying to breed and lay eggs to continue the life cycle.\u201d<\/p>\n

This species, like other members of Enoxyla, is primarily nocturnal. So the animal stayed perfectly still as Parkhurst respectfully observed..<\/p>\n

Ben Parkhurst<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just didn\u2019t move at all,\u201d Parkhurst said. \u201cYou could get within a centimeter of it and it would just sit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parkhurst feels lucky that he happened to get close enough to the tree to notice the enormous moth. If he hadn\u2019t walked right by it, he might not have even spotted one of the most unique animals he\u2019s ever seen.<\/p>\n

\"Driver<\/a>Driver Spots Majestic Animal ‘Sleeping’ By The Road \u2014 Then Realizes She’s In Trouble\u201cShe was dangerously close to dying.”<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The other day, Ben Parkhurst, a regional ecologist for Bush Heritage Australia, went out to Hamelin Station Reserve…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":579114,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[16330,49,48,6586,144890,66,2225,6584,323],"class_list":{"0":"post-579113","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-alana-francis-crow","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-daily-dodo","12":"tag-moths","13":"tag-science","14":"tag-standard","15":"tag-the-dodo","16":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=579113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/579114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=579113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=579113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=579113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}