The painting depicts a type of large edible larva found in the thick woody stump of the me poko vine, hence its name: the ‘me poko (vine) larva’ (me, wood; poko, vine; ow, larva). The animal is shown, highly schematically, at two different stages in its life-cycle: as a larva and as a mature insect of imago. The grub is represented by means of a large triangular ‘face’ (misoma), shown in the upper and in a mirror reflection in the lower half of the painting. Each face possesses a pair of large black ‘eyes’, a black bulbous ‘nose’, and a black ‘mouth’. The ‘mouth’ represented by the black ovoid form in the centre of the design, is shared by both faces; these two images, therefore, are partially merged. The mature insect is represented by its antennae (boriina boriina); these are two pairs of white hooks formed in the centre of each side of the design.