This beauty was found on my office bench one morning this week. So intact, so beautiful. A bit of googling established it is a Bogong Moth.
My studio and office is a giant shed so i find critters around from time to time and watch a spider in her webs, around my window overlooking the paddock, catch and wrap flies.
In googling i discovered the Bogong Moth is endangered and recorded my sighting on a website dedicated to tracking these amazing creatures. They aim to support Bogong Moth research, and promote Moth Tracker.
Common name:Â Bogong moth
Aboriginal name:Â The name Bogong is apparently derived from the language of the Dhudhuroa Nation of North Eastern Victoria.
Scientific name:Â Agrotis infusa
Population:Â Declining
Conservation status:Â EndangeredÂ
Bogong moths also provide critical food for the critically endangered Mountain pygmy possum, lizards, antechinus (broad-toothed rat) and spiders across the Snowy Mountain region.Â
Each spring, Bogong moths emerge from beneath the soil in Darling river plains of Queensland, New South Wales and Western Victoria and navigate their way to the Alpine region. This journey can be more than 1,000 kilometres.Â
After spending the summer in the cooler mountain caves, they return to their birthplace to reproduce over winter: new larvae again growing under the soil from plant roots and other plant matter.Â
The Bogong moth is missing in the wild
Just 20 years ago, hundreds of thousands of Bogong moths disrupted the Sydney Olympics when they were attracted to stadium floodlights. And in Canberra, many residents remember how the night air could be thick with Bogong moths getting lost in the city lights on the way to the mountains.Â
Yet the Bogong moth was just added to an international red list of threatened species as endangered — it was assessed along with 123 other Australian species, 56 of which are now listed as threatened with extinction.
Australia is already ranked 4th in the world for extinction so this is dire news.
Read more here about the stories of the Bogong Moth
Three days ago out of my peripheral vision right in the centre of the studio, this lil fellow was running around, face covered in spider webs from crawling around under the benches. You see him here in this image after i 'swept' him (with a broom) into a plastic tub and then proceeded to 'sweep' away the cobwebs which was blinding him.
Playing with the fern book idea and mono prints
The bogong moths flocked round the lights of New Parliament House, standing up on the hill. They would normally fly to the southern alps and stay in the caves. Aboriginal people would move to the mountains to feast on the roasted moths. The detail and shading are quite lovely.