Species Agrotis infusa (Boisduval, 1832)

Bogong Moths, Agrotis infusa, 'over-summering' in the Brindabella Ranges

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Museums

Regional Maps

• Noctua infusa Boisduval, J.B.A.D. de 1832. Voyage de Découvertes de l'Astrolabe exécuté par Ordre du Roi, Pendant les Années 1826–1827–1828–1829, sous le Commandement de M.J. Dumont D'Urville. Faune entomologique de l'Océan Pacifique, avec l'illustration des insectes nouveaux recueillis pendant le Voyage. Part 1. Lépidoptères. Paris : J. Tastu iv, 267 pp. [publication date: Sherborn, C.D. & Woodward, B.B. 1901. Dates of publication of the zoological and botanical portions of some French voyages. Dumont d'Urville's Voyage de l'Astrolabe. Annals and Magazine of Natural History 7 8: 333 [333]] [240].

  Type data:

   Syntype(s) BMNH ♂, Australia [as 'Nouvelle-Hollande'].
• Agrotis spina Guenée, A. 1852. Noctuélites I. In, Boisduval, J.-A. & Guenée, A. (eds). Histoire Naturelle des Insectes. Species Général des Lépidoptères. Paris : Librarie Encyclopédique de Roret Vol. 5 xcvi, 407 pp. [269].

  Type data:

   Lectotype MNHP ♂, Australia [as 'Nouvelle-Hollande'].

  Subsequent designation references:

  Viette, P. 1951. Sur quelques Noctuelles décrites par Guenée (1852-1854). Bulletin Mensuel de la Société Linnéenne de Lyon 20: 159-162 [160].
• Agrotis cordata Walker, F. 1857. Noctuidae. List of the Specimens of Lepidopterous Insects in the Collection of the British Museum 11: 492-764 [741].

  Type data:

   Holotype BMNH ♂, Australia.
• Mamestra nitida Walker, F. 1865. Supplement 2. List of the Specimens of Lepidopterous Insects in the Collection of the British Museum 32: 322-706 [Date published April] [668].

  Type data:

   Holotype BMNH ♀, Moreton Bay, [QLD].
• Mamestra tenebrosa Walker, F. 1865. Supplement 2. List of the Specimens of Lepidopterous Insects in the Collection of the British Museum 32: 322-706 [Date published April] [669].

  Type data:

   Holotype BMNH ♀, Sydney, Australia.
• Agrotis vastator Scott, A.W. 1869. On the "Agrotis vastator", a species of moth, now infesting the sea-board of New South Wales. Transactions of the Entomological Society of London 2: 40-48 [40].

  Type data:

   Syntype(s) whereabouts unknown, Seaboard of NSW, [Australia].

Taxonomic Decision for Synonymy

• Common, I.F.B. 1958. The Australian cutworms of the genus Agrotis (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae). Australian Journal of Zoology 6: 69-88, 3 pls [75-76]

Distribution

States

Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia

IBRA and IMCRA regions

IBRA

ACT, NSW, Qld, SA, Tas, Vic, WA: Australian Alps (AA), Avon Wheatbelt (AW), Brigalow Belt North (BBN), Brigalow Belt South (BBS), Ben Lomond (BEL), Broken Hill Complex (BHC), Carnarvon (CAR), Channel Country (CHC), Central Kimberley (CK), Central Mackay Coast (CMC), Coolgardie (COO), Cobar Peneplain (CP), Central Ranges (CR), Cape York Peninsula (CYP), Desert Uplands (DEU), Dampierland (DL), Darling Riverine Plains (DRP), Einasleigh Uplands (EIU), Esperance Plains (ESP), Eyre Yorke Block (EYB), Finke (FIN), Flinders Lofty Block (FLB), Flinders (FLI), Gascoyne (GAS), Gawler (GAW), Gibson Desert (GD), Geraldton Sandplains (GS), Great Sandy Desert (GSD), Gulf Plains (GUP), Great Victoria Desert (GVD), Hampton (HAM), Jarrah Forest (JF), Kanmantoo (KAN), King (KIN), Little Sandy Desert (LSD), Mallee (MAL), Murray Darling Depression (MDD), Mitchell Grass Downs (MGD), Mount Isa Inlier (MII), Mulga Lands (ML), Murchison (MUR), Nandewar (NAN), Naracoorte Coastal Plain (NCP), New England Tablelands (NET), Northern Kimberley (NK), NSW North Coast (NNC), NSW South Western Slopes (NSS), Nullarbor (NUL), Ord Victoria Plain (OVP), Pilbara (PIL), Riverina (RIV), Sydney Basin (SB), South East Coastal Plain (SCP), South East Corner (SEC), South Eastern Highlands (SEH), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ), Simpson Strzelecki Dunefields (SSD), Stony Plains (STP), Swan Coastal Plain (SWA), Tanami (TAN), Tasmanian Central Highlands (TCH), Tasmanian Northern Midlands (TNM), Tasmanian Northern Slopes (TNS), Tasmanian South East (TSE), Tasmanian Southern Ranges (TSR), Tasmanian West (TWE), Victoria Bonaparte (VB), Victorian Midlands (VM), Victorian Volcanic Plain (VVP), Warren (WAR), Wet Tropics (WT), Yalgoo (YAL)

Other Regions

Lord Howe Island terrestrial & freshwater, Norfolk Island terrestrial & freshwater

Ecological Descriptors

Larvae can cause extensive damage to pastures and crops such as Triticum, Hordeum (Poaceae), Linum (Linaceae), Medicago, Pisum (Fabaceae), Solanum (Solanaceae), Mentha (Lamiaceae), Brassica (Brassicaceae) and Beta (Chenopodiaceae). Imagines ("bogong moths") are well known for their annual migration and aggregation. They migrate from the larval feeding areas in inland QLD, NSW and SA to the highlands in the south-east in spring where they form congregations of many thousands of specimens in crevices and caverns above 1400m. The moths migrate back to the breeding grounds in late summer and autumn.

History of changes