Agrotis infusa

Bogong Moth, Common Cutworm at Hughes, ACT

Agrotis infusa at Hughes, ACT - 12 Feb 2022
Agrotis infusa at Hughes, ACT - 12 Feb 2022
Request use of media

Identification history

Agrotis infusa 14 Feb 2022 donhe
Agrotis infusa 13 Feb 2022 ibaird
Unidentified 13 Feb 2022 LisaH

Identify this sighting


Please Login or Register to identify this sighting.

7 comments

ibaird wrote:
   14 Feb 2022
Mothers (ie. 'moth-ers)' may like to keep an eye out for this, now apparently much less common, species. Migration back to the lowland breeding grounds may have already re-commenced this season. It will be interesting to see whether the extensice drought breaking rains in the breeding grounds lead to a recovery in the numbers we see in the near future,
   14 Feb 2022
Shall we have a new group called MothWatch, to match FrogWatch, Water Watch & Bat Watch?
ibaird wrote:
   14 Feb 2022
Its interesting that moth watching seems almost to rival bird watching in popularity in the UK. Not so in Australia. Every UK macro moth seems to have a common name there. They only have about 2,500 species compared to Australia's estimated 10,000. I am currently reading 'Much Ado About Mothing' by James Lowen (Bloomsbury Wildlife, London) available for purchase on the NHBS website.
ibaird wrote:
   14 Feb 2022
Museum Victoria has been running a group to monitor Bogong Moth numbers. iNaturlist lists 'Moth Projects' nationally, see here:
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/moths-of-queensland-australia/journal/21062.
Moths of NSW and the ACT is leading the count on moth observations with Queensland running second.
LisaH wrote:
   14 Feb 2022
Fascinating discussion, thank you. I'm going to keep a closer eye out for moths in future, and learn more about life cycles, safe capture etc.
   15 Feb 2022
We are doing well on CNM with 1273 species, better than all Aussie states on iNat except NSW with 1337 species.
ibaird wrote:
   15 Feb 2022
Yes. Canberra is 'Moth Central'! But as usual, most likely due to the distribution of the observers than the moths themselves.

Please Login or Register to comment.

Location information

Sighting information

  • 1 Abundance
  • 12 Feb 2022 05:40 PM Recorded on
  • LisaH Recorded by

Additional information

  • 12mm to 25mm Animal size

Species information

Record quality

  • Images or audio
  • More than one media file
  • Verified by an expert moderator
  • Nearby sighting(s) of same species
  • GPS evidence of location
  • Description
  • Additional attributes
1,890,055 sightings of 20,975 species in 9,252 locations from 12,827 contributors
CCA 3.0 | privacy
We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of this land and acknowledge their continuing connection to their culture. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present.