Saturday Morning With Jack Tame

At this time of the year there’s only one place I’d love to be: The North Island.   These are the largest moths in Aotearoa. They are also very nicely coloured – lots of green and yellow as well as white and orange patches. Their wingspan is up to 150mm, and they’re a noisy flyer at night.   Females are often larger than males – they lay masses of eggs as they fly through the forest at night.   The relatively small caterpillars hatch on the forest floor and commence eating dead wood, infected by fungal material.    The funny thing is that these very young caterpillars only move around for 6 to 12 months, after which they move up tree trunks to find out what the wood tastes like… Once they’ve found a suitable tree with nice bark and yummy phloem and xylem, they will start to build a long-term tunnel system in which they can live 5, 6, or even 7 years.   It’s a 7-shaped tunnel that goes into the trunk and down (yes, the shape of a 7!), and it lives there for 7 years.  The p