Mothra, is that you?!
In a scene out of a “Godzilla” movie, workers at an Australian school made the discovery of a monstrous giant moth that was so heavy that it struggled to fly.
After the behemoth was found at a construction site at Mount Cotton State School in Queensland, images of the creature were shared on social media.
The pics show the frightening bug sprawled out on the edge of a saw blade while a pair of hands holds it from a safe distance.
Meagan Steward, the school’s principal, described the creepy crawly as an “amazing find” and noted it was the “size of two fists put together,” according to the Australian outlet News.com.
Queensland Museum’s head of entomology Dr. Christine Lambkin identified the massive grey insect as a wood moth and noted it was “the world’s heaviest of the species.”
Wood moths typically weigh just over an ounce and the females can have a wingspan of nine inches. However, due to their chunky demeanor, flight doesn’t come easy for the wood moth.
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“They fly very, very poorly,” said Lambkin. “In most cases, when the females emerge, they just crawl up a tree or stump of a fence post and wait for the males to find them.”
Upon finding the giant moth, students at the school used the discovery as a source of inspiration.
"The students wrote some very creative and imaginative pieces of writing, including Mrs. Wilson getting eaten by the giant moth," added Principal Steward.
After being photographed, the moth was returned safely to a nearby rainforest.
Let’s hope she doesn’t return bigger and madder than ever.
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