Witchetty grub
Overview
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
for the large, white, wood-eating larva
Larva
A larva is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle...
e of several moth
Moth
A moth is an insect closely related to the butterfly, both being of the order Lepidoptera. Moths form the majority of this order; there are thought to be 150,000 to 250,000 different species of moth , with thousands of species yet to be described...
s. Particularly it applies to the larva of the cossid moth
Cossidae
Cossidae, the cossid millers or carpenter millers, make up a family of mostly large miller moths. Ths family contains over 110 genera with almost 700 known species, and many more species await description...
Endoxyla leucomochla
Endoxyla leucomochla
Endoxyla leucomochla is a species of cossid moth endemic to Australia. The larvae of the moth is commonly known as the "witchetty grub", and was widely used as bushfood by Indigenous Australians....
, which feeds on the roots of the Witchetty bush
Acacia kempeana
Acacia kempeana , commonly known as wanderrie wattle, witchetty bush or granite wattle, is a shrub in subfamily Mimosoideae of family Fabaceae...
(named after the grubs) that is found in central Australia.
The term may also apply to larvae of other cossid moths, ghost moths (Hepialidae
Hepialidae
The Hepialidae is 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:...
), and longhorn beetles (Cerambycidae). The term is used mainly when the larvae are being considered as food.
