A rhino beetle emerges

A female rhinoceros beetle (Chalcosoma atlas) has emerged at the butterfly house in the last week.  She has been bred up from an egg laid more than two years ago and grew into a huge grub as thick as a man's thumb.  As a grub, she was fed rotten wood and occasional dog biscuits. As a beetle, she will feed on fruit smoothie and bananas.  She doesn't bite but she will quickly grab onto any unsuspecting finger with her pin-sharp claws; the only way to get her off is to put her in soil and encourage her to go underground.

Fifteen grubs of a related species of Rhino beetle (Chalcosoma chiron) are also being bred at the butterfly house and are currently about an inch long.

Giant moths and butterflies

There's a suite of large butterflies and moths that have emerged this week including the Philippine swallowtail, Atrophaneura semperi.  Semperi (see right) is one of the more majestic butterflies that we display.  The male has all black wings and a crimson head and body.  Semperi belongs to the fabled Birdwing tribe of Swallowtails that comprise some of the most spectacular butterflies in the world.  

We have some huge Atlas moths out at the moment - one female has a wingspan of 26 cm across.  The world record for an Atlas moth is 26.2 cm but this is from a pinned specimen with its forewings set at right angles to its body.  Another giant out this week is the Comet moth (Argema mittrei). We 

have three males emerged this week and are waiting for a female to try and breed them.  Most visitors assume these two species of moths are fake as they walk into the reception room.  We also have large caterpillars of moon moths chomping away, the Indonesia moon moth about the size of a man's finger (Actias maenas) and the rare Dubernardi's Moon Moth feeding on pine.  The latter caterpillar is green with dashes of shining silver like liquid mercury.  Both species will start spinning cocoons within the week.