Maori name for avegetable-caterpillar of New Zealand. See quotation.
1889. E. Wakefield, `New Zealand after Fifty Years,' p. 81:
«. . . the aweto, or vegetable-caterpillar, called bythe naturalists Hipialis virescens. It is a perfectcaterpillar in every respect, and a remarkably fine one too,growing to a length in the largest specimens of three and ahalf inches and the thickness of a finger, but more commonly toabout a half or two-thirds of that size. . . . Whenfull-grown, it undergoes a miraculous change. For someinexplicable reason, the spore of a vegetable fungus Sphaeria Robertsii, fixes itself on its neck, or betweenthe head and the first ring of the caterpillar, takes root andgrows vigorously . . . exactly like a diminutive bulrush from 6to 10 inches high without leaves, and consisting solely of asingle stem with a dark-brown felt-like head, so familiar inthe bulrushes . . . always at the foot of the rata.»
1896. A. Bence Jones, in `Pearson's Magazine,' Sept., p. 290:
«The dye in question was a solution of burnt or powdered resin,or wood, or the aweto, the latter a caterpillar, which,burrowing in the vegetable soil, gets a spore of a fungusbetween the folds of its neck, and unable to free itself, theinsect's body nourishes the fungus, which vegetates andoccasions the death of the caterpillar by exactly filling theinterior of the body with its roots, always preserving itsperfect form. When properly charred this material yielded afine dark dye, much prized for purposes of moko.» [See moko.]