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BOGONG MOTH FACTS |
Identification
Bogong moths are light brown or dark brown with a dark streak on the forewings superimposed with two pale spots. The hind wings are lighter brown with a dark border. The Bogong moth is a night-flying moth and is attracted to lights often in large numbers.
Bogong Moths caterpillars start off cream, but as they develop they become green with pale lines along the body and between the body segments, and eventually become dark brown or almost black.
Size
Adult moth wingspan about 5cm. Caterpillar length to 5cm.
Food
Bogong moth larvae are known as cutworms for their habit of cutting off plants at ground level to take down their burrows in the soil as food. Bogong moth larvae are a minor agricultural pest on crops such as cauliflower, silver beet, lucerne, flax and cereals. Thy also feed on several weed species. Adult bogongs feed on nectar.
Breeding
The female lays eggs at the base of the food plant. The caterpillar feeds at night and shelters during the day in a burrow in the soil at the base of the plant. They pupate in a cocoon in their burrow.
Range
The Bogong moth is common in southern Australia. During summer, adults congregate in caves and crevices of rocks in the Snowy Mountains in southern New South Wales and the Victorian Alps. In winter they disperse throughout inland New South Wales and southern Queensland to breed on west of the Great Dividing Range.
Notes
Indigenous Australians from south east Australia used to eat the moths. They would head off to the caves where the moths congregated to collect them, and roast them for food.
Classification
| Class: | Insecta | | Order: | Lepidoptera | | Family: | Noctuidae | | Genus: | Agrotis | | Species: | infusa | | Common Name: | Bogong moth |
Relatives in same Genus
Brown cutworm (A. munda)
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