Synemon parthenoides R. Felder & Rogenhofer, 1874
Link Moth
CASTNIIDAE,   SESIOIDEA
 
Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley

Synemon parthenoides
(Photo: courtesy of CSIRO/BIO Photography Group, Centre for Biodiversity Genomics, University of Guelph)

The Caterpillar of this species is pale pink. It feeds on tussocks of the sedge :

  • Black Rapier Sedge ( Lepidosperma carphoides, CYPERACEAE ).

    Synemon parthenoides
    (Photo: copyright of Brett and Marie Smith, at Ellura Sanctuary, South Australia)

    The adult moth has dark brown forewings with white markings. The forewings have a blue iridescence along the costa.

    Synemon parthenoides
    drawing by Achille Guenée, in Boisduval & Guenée: Sphinx, Sésies, Castnies,

    Histoire naturelle des insectes; spécies général des lépidoptères,
    Volume 9 Atlas (1852), Plate 11, fig. 5,
    Image courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library, digitized by Smithsonian Libraries.

    The hindwings are dark brown with orange spots. The wingspan is about 4 cms.

    Synemon parthenoides
    (Picture: courtesy of Shell Company of Australia)

    The species has been found in

  • Queensland,
  • Victoria,
  • South Australia.

    Synemon parthenoides
    drawing by Rudolf Felder & Alois F. Rogenhofer,

    Reise der Osterreichischen Fregatte Novara,
    Band 2, Abtheilung 2 (1875), Plate LXXIX, fig. 8,
    image courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library, digitized by Smithsonian Libraries.


    Further reading :

    David Carter,
    Butterflies and Moths,
    Collins Eyewitness Handbooks, Sydney 1992, p. 285.

    Ian F.B. Common,
    Moths of Australia,
    Melbourne University Press, 1990, pl. 6.14, p. 285.

    Rudolf Felder & Alois F. Rogenhofer,
    Zoologischer Theil,
    Reise der Osterreichischen Fregatte Novara,
    Band 2, Abtheilung 2 (1875), p. 9, and also Plate 79, figs. 7-8.

    Achille Guenée,
    Sphinx, Sésies, Castnies,
    in Boisduval & Guenée:
    Histoire naturelle des insectes; spécies général des lépidoptères,
    Volume 9 Atlas (1852), Plate 11, fig. 5.

    Peter B. McQuillan, Jan A. Forrest, David Keane, & Roger Grund,
    Caterpillars, moths, and their plants of Southern Australia,
    Butterfly Conservation South Australia Inc., Adelaide (2019), p. 72.


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    (updated 3 March 2009, 26 March 2018, 9 September 2019, 30 July 2021)