NZ has the most unique moths

92% of New Zealand’s butterfly and moth species are found nowhere else in the world.

New Zealand has around 70 species of butterflies and more than 2,000 moths but many of these moths are active at dusk and some during the day. Surprisingly there are more species as you travel south, the mountains of the South Island are particularly rich in species.

More than 110 species of New Zealand moths and butterflies are threatened with extinction.

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New Zealand also has the most copper butterflies in the world with 40 unique species.

The Puriri moth is New Zealand’s largest and heaviest moth. As a larvae it spends up to six years or more living in the trunk of (most commonly) a Puriri tree.

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