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Introduction
to the site
There are about 22,000 species of Australian moths, of which only half have been described so far.
Apart from original descriptions (often very old and insufficient) and scientific studies on selected groups, relatively little has been published on Australian moths (see below).
For most Australian species little more than the name is known so far, and field observations on life histories are urgently needed. What does this species feed on? What do the caterpillars of this species look like? Has this courtship behaviour been observed? Which parasitoids prey on this species? Do these caterpillars have a social behaviour? Where and when does this species occur? Countless questions are still to be answered.
 Many valuable contributions to the knowledge on Lepidoptera have been made by non-professionals all over the world, and it is our aim to further interest in Australian moths and to encourage such contributions.
Not being able to identify species is a serious obstacle for any professional research and a major dilemma for anybody interested in nature. We hope that this web site helps to close this gap, providing some badly needed images and giving a unique possibility of seeing some of Australia 's rarely observed treasures, its “beauties of the night”.
Published works
'Moths
of Australia' (Common, 1990,
Melbourne University Press)
provides a wealth of information on Australian moths, treating all families and illustrating a number of frequently encountered species.
'The Checklist
of the Lepidoptera of Australia' (Nielsen, Edwards & Rangsi, 1996,
CSIRO Publishing)
provides an invaluable taxonomic tool and nomenclatural basis for any study of Australian Lepidoptera, being the only comprehensive list of Australian genera and species names available to date.
‘A Guide to Australian Moths' (Zborowski and Edwards, 2007, CSIRO Publishing) has colour illustrations of living moths and provides a rough guide to help the user discover what family a moth belongs to. It answers some of the most commonly asked questions about moths, and deals with iconic Australian moths such as the bogong moth, witjuti grub and scribbly gum moths. |
