CARPENTER MOTH

any member of the small cosmopolitan insect family Cossidae (order Lepidoptera). Adults have vestigial mouthparts, long, thick bodies and gray to brown wings that are frequently mottled or spotted. The wingspan varies from under 2.5 centimetres (one inch) in the temperate zone to about 25 centimetres (10 inches) in Xyleutes boisduvali of Australia. The pale, nearly hairless larvae, which live one to three years, bore in wood or pithy stems and are highly destructive. The carpenterworm moth (Prinoxystus robiniae) has a wingspan of about 5 cm (2 in.) and is the most familiar North American cossid. The mahogany-coloured larvae of the goat moth (Cossus cossus) attack deciduous trees and exude a strong, goatlike odour. The leopard moth (Zeuzera pyrina) has white wings with black or blue blotches; its larvae bore in deciduous and fruit trees for about two years before pupating within their larval burrows.