Animalia > Arthropoda > Insecta > Coleoptera > Cerambycidae > Prionoplus > Prionoplus reticularis

Prionoplus reticularis (Huhu (grub)/Tunga rere (beetle))

Synonyms: Prionus reticularis

Wikipedia Abstract

The huhu beetle (Prionoplus reticularis) is the largest endemic beetle found in New Zealand, a member of the longhorn beetle family (Cerambycidae). Huhu is now often used as the name for all stages of life of the beetle, but traditionally huhu was the Māori name for the larval stage, which was also known as tunga rakau or tunga haere. The whitish larvae are up to 70 millimetres (2.8 in) long and normally feed on dead wood of gymnosperms (mainly native and introduced conifers). The native host plants are all associated with lowland podocarp forest. They are edible, and are said by some to taste like buttery chicken.
View Wikipedia Record: Prionoplus reticularis

Predators

Ninox novaeseelandiae (Morepork)[1]

External References

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
1The diet of moreporks (Ninox novaeseelandiae) in relation to prey availability, and their roost site characteristics and breeding success on Ponui Island, Hauraki Gulf, New Zealand., Kirsty Marie Denny, A thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Ecology at Massey University, Albany New Zealand. (2009)
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0