Moths of Toowoomba

Declining insect numbers

First item this week is an article on the link below. It is another article pointing out the problems that our moths and other insects are having surviving in the current climate across Australia, and the associated food shortage and decline of the animals that use the insects as a food source.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2019-02-27/bogong-moth-decline-in-australian-alps/10850036

I have mentioned on this Blog a number of times, the dramatic drop in the total number of moths we get at night on the windows.
I know there will be many factors including our current drought, but it is the longer term reduction in insect numbers over a 30 year period that is the real worry.
The loss of certain species can be accounted for by habitat loss and changes in the plant species in the
immediate environment, but there appear to be other factors at work.

Drop in insect numbers have been noted over large parts of Australia and Europe. The evidence world wide is mostly by observation rather than formal research, except in Germany where there has been some long term research done showing a 75% drop in total flying insect biomass in protected areas over 27 years.

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0185809
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/feb/10/why-are-insects-in-decline-and-can-we-do-anything-about-it

These links are deliberately not "click on" links. You can either paste the link into your browser or search out the web sites via normal search methods.

I wonder how many other countries are suffering the same problems with their insects.



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Faveria laiasalis PHYCITINAE PYRALIDAE

This moth is likely to be a grass moth, and we have noticed a drop in these moths that can be directly
attributed to the type and quantity of uncut grasses in the area and the increase in imported grasses taking over from native grasses.
I was not able to find anything specific on its biology.

Family:- PYRALIDAE
Sub Family:- PHYCITINAE
Genus:- Faveria 
Species:- laiasalis











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 Ephestiopsis oenobarella PHYCITINAE PYRALIDAE

Not an easy moth to identify, but it is likely to be Ephestiopsis oenobarella. The best match I was able to find was a photo on Bold systems labeled (IM11-0182) CC BY-NC-SA (2012) CBG Photography Group.
Most likely another grass moth.

Family:- PYRALIDAE
Sub Family:- PHYCITINAE
Genus:- Ephestiopsis
Species:- oenobarella










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