In more than 20 years of breeding butterflies and, to a lesser extent, moths, we’ve finally bred what can only be described as 'The Mother of all Caterpillars'.
This is a female Hercules moth caterpillar, or at least we assume it’s female, because all female Lepidoptera (ie. butterflies and moths) are bigger than their male counterparts, as they have to carry a belly full of eggs - sometimes up to 300 of them.
The Hercules is native to Far North Queensland and is the world’s largest moth. But it was no coincidence that we bred such a large specimen, it was the conditions and food we gave it.
This is the first time we’ve been able to feed our Hercules right through on their preferred food plant, the leaves of the rainforest tree Homalanthus, and if you give them precisely what they want and prefer, they’ll put on the size and weight. In fact, even more so if you don’t stress them out by crowding them in their breeding cages.
So we’re now eagerly waiting for our friend to spin a cocoon and pupate. Then in several months, or hopefully much less, we should see a truly magnificent Hercules moth emerge.
The largest Hercules moth ever recorded was a huge female caught at Innisfail in 1948.
The Guinness Book of Records states that it had an incredible wingspan of 360mm (14.17 inches).
 
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