''Aenetus cohici'' is a

moth Moths are a paraphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. There are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of w ...

of the family

Hepialidae The Hepialidae are a family of insects in the lepidopteran order. Moths of this family are often referred to as swift moths or ghost moths. Taxonomy and systematics The Hepialidae constitute by far the most diverse group of the infraorder Exop ...

. It is endemic to New Caledonia. The

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingspan o ...

is 107–121 mm. There are two colour morphs. The first has a background colour of yellowish-green with pastel violet spots. The second morph has a greyish-green background colour with yellowish-green patches faintly visible as transverse rows and pastel violet spots on the costal margin. The hindwings are pale orange in the basal area, blending into orange-white over the remainder of the hindwing. The larvae have been recorded feeding on dead wood and polypore fungi. Later instars bore the wood of ''

Nothofagus ''Nothofagus'', also known as the southern beeches, is a genus of 43 species of trees and shrubs native to the Southern Hemisphere in southern South America (Chile, Argentina) and Australasia (east and southeast Australia, New Zealand, New Gui ...

'' and ''

Hibbertia ''Hibbertia'', commonly known as guinea flowers, is a genus of flowering plants in the family Dilleniaceae. They are usually shrubs with simple leaves and usually yellow flowers with five sepals and five petals. There are about 400 species, mo ...

'' species. They enter their host plant above ground level and construct a tunnel which extends into and then down the stem. The tunnel entrance is covered by a silken web containing

frass Frass refers loosely to the more or less solid excreta of insects, and to certain other related matter. Definition and etymology ''Frass'' is an informal term and accordingly it is variously used and variously defined. It is derived from the ...

References

Moths described in 1961 Hepialidae {{Hepialidae-stub