Solving a moth mystery
IT’S A PUZZLE that’s mystified scientists for decades. Just how does the bogong moth navigate each spring from the hot and arid plains of southern Queensland, north-western New South Wales, western Victoria and South Australia to the cool environment of the Snowy Mountains, and then complete the return journey 3–4 months later?
During some years the much-maligned moths are blown off course or attracted by city lights, as famously occurred in September 2000 when the opening ceremony of the Sydney Olympic Games was besieged by the flying insects.
When, three years later, they descended in their millions on Parliament House in Canberra during a visit by US president George W. Bush, some politicians, annoyed by bogongs swimming
