Australian moths represent between 20,000 and 30,000 different types of moths. In comparison, there are only 400 species of Australian butterflies. The moths (mostly nocturnal) and butterflies (mostly diurnal) together make up the taxonomic order Lepidoptera. Scientifically, these moths are organised into about 80 families, but the status of some is controversial and several recent changes have been suggested.
This is a list of moth species which have been recorded in Australia. The list covers the continent of Australia and Tasmania and includes islands close to the mainland.
This page provides a link to detailed lists of these moths by family. If a family is endemic to Australia, the link redirects to a description of the family itself.
Families Adelidae Agathiphagidae Only one Australian species is known: Agathiphaga queenslandensis Dumbleton, 1952 Agonoxenidae Only one Australian species is known: Agonoxena phoenicia Bradley, 1966 Alucitidae Anomosetidae Anomoses hylecoetes Anthelidae Arctiidae Argyresthiidae (mostly treated as a subfamily of Yponomeutidae) Only one Australian species is known: Argyresthia notoleuca (Turner, 1913) Arrhenophanidae Only one Australian species is known: Notiophanes fuscata Davis and Edwards, 2003 Batrachedridae Blastobasidae Blastodacnidae (sometimes included in Agonoxenidae) Bombycidae Only three Australian species are known: Bombyx mori (Linnaeus, 1758), Gastridiota adoxima (Turner, 1902) and an unnamed Elachyophthalma species. Brachodidae Bucculatricidae Carposinidae Carthaeidae Carthaea saturnioides Castniidae Choreutidae Coleophoridae Copromorphidae Cosmopterigidae Cossidae Cyclotornidae Depressariidae (mostly considered a subfamily of Oecophoridae) Drepanidae Douglasiidae Only one Australian species is known: Tinagma leucanthes Meyrick, 1897 Dudgeoneidae Elachistidae Epermeniidae Epipyropidae Erebidae Eriocottidae Only one Australian species is known: Eucryptogona trichobathra Lower, 1901 Ethmiidae Eupterotidae Galacticidae Gelechiidae Geometridae Glyphipterigidae Gracillariidae Heliocosma group Heliodinidae Heliozelidae Hepialidae Herminiidae (mostly considered a subfamily of Noctuidae) Hyblaeidae Hypertrophidae (mostly considered a subfamily of Oecophoridae) Immidae Incurvariidae Lacturidae Lasiocampidae Lecithoceridae Limacodidae Lophocoronidae Lymantriidae Lyonetiidae Macropiratidae Only one Australian species is known: Agdistopis halieutica (Meyrick, 1932) Micronoctuidae Only few Australian species are known: Duplex horakae Fibiger, 2010, Duplex edwardsi Fibiger, 2010, Duplex pullata Fibiger, 2010, Duplex cockingi Fibiger, 2010 and Flax kalliesi Fibiger, 2011. Records for Tolpia conscitulana Walker, 1863 and Tolpia myops Hampson, 1907, formerly included in Noctuidae, are based on misidentifications. Micropterigidae The following Australian species are known: Austromartyria porphyrodes (Turner, 1932), Aureopterix sterops (Turner, 1921) and the species in the genus Tasmantrix. Momphidae Only an unnamed Zapyrastra species is known. Nepticulidae Noctuidae (including Aganaidae and Nolidae) Notodontidae Oecophoridae Oenosandridae Opostegidae Palaeosetidae Only one Australian species is known: Palaeoses scholastica Turner, 1922. Palaephatidae Plutellidae Psychidae Pterophoridae Pyralidae (including Crambidae) Roeslerstammiidae Saturniidae Scythrididae Sesiidae Simaethistidae Only two Australian species are known: Metaprotus asuridia (Butler, 1886) and Metaprotus magnifica (Meyrick, 1887) Sphingidae Symmocidae Only one Australian species is known: Nemotyla oribates Nielsen, McQuillan & Common, 1992 Thyrididae Tineidae Tineodidae Tortricidae Uraniidae Yponomeutidae Zygaenidae
See also List of butterflies of Australia List of butterflies of Tasmania List of butterflies of Victoria
Notes and references
Further reading
External links Australian Moths Online CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences