Museum Notes THE HUHU BEETLE

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22335, 24 February 1938, Page 2 (Supplement)

Museum Notes THE HUHU BEETLE

Quite a number of specimens of New Zealand’s largest native beetle have been presented recently to the Canterbury Museum. It is, perhaps, the prolonged spell of warm weather which has encouraged these beetles to emerge

In such numbers, and quite a number of the people who have found them do not remember having seen them before. The beetle, which is nearly 21n In length, is frequently, attracted to lighted windows at night, and It makes a loud droning sound when

(By R. A. Falla)

on the wing. It is brown in colour, with lighter coloured veins on the ujaper wings, and has two long, jointed antennae. The eggs of this insect are laid in crevices under dead bark, and the grub spends its life burrowing into dead timber. The full-grown

grub, which is white in colour and greasy to the touch, measures fully Sin. It was once highly esteemed by the Maoris as an article of diet, and is still occasionally eaten by people with a taste for unusual food and a touch of experimental daring.