Alice Springs Fauna •
Alice Springs Moths | Alice Springs Moths Index
The species Helicoverpa punctigera common names include Australian Fruitworm, Australian bollworm, Native budworm and Heliothis.
Native to Australia, the Helicoverpa punctigera can often be found breeding during the winter on flowering plants across inland Australia, especially when there is sufficient rainfall for broadleaf vegetation. Late winter/spring, the moths migrate towards the coastal eastern region of Australia.

The larvae are known as a generalist, feeding on at least 100 different plant species, especially agricultural crops such as sunflower, peas, flax, maize, tomatoes, cotton and tobacco. They also feed on Australian native plants such as native daisies, billy buttons (Leiocarpa brevicompta), annual yellow tops (Senecio gregorii), and native legume (Cullen cinereum).

- Scientific classification
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Arthropoda
- Subphylum: Hexapoda
- Class: Insecta
- Informal: Pterygotes
- Order: Lepidoptera
- Unranked: Ditrysia
- Superfamily: Noctuoidea
- Family: Noctuidae
- Subfamily: Heliothinae
- Genus: Helicoverpa
- Species: Helicoverpa punctigera
Footnote & References
- Australian Fruitworm (Helicoverpa punctigera), iNaturalistAU, https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/taxa/390336-Helicoverpa-punctigera
- Helicoverpa punctigera (Wallengren, 1860), Atlas of Living Australia, https://bie.ala.org.au/species/Helicoverpa punctigera
- Helicoverpa punctigera, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helicoverpa_punctigera
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