Ceryx sphenodes (Meyrick, 1886) (previously known as Agaphthora sphenodes) SYNTOMIINI,   CTENUCHINI,   ARCTIINAE,   EREBIDAE,   NOCTUOIDEA

Don Herbison-Evans (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Stella Crossley

(Photo: courtesy of David Rentz, Kuranda, Queensland)

The caterpillar of this species is black and hairy, with some pale spots, and a pale brown head.

pupa, with skin of final instar
(Photo: courtesy of David Rentz, Kuranda, Queensland)

The pupa is brown with some short spikes on the abdomen. The pupa is formed in a flimsy cocoon.

The adult moth of this species is black with transparent windows in the wings and has a black and yellow banded abdomen. It has a wingspan of about 2 cms. The hindwings are only about half the span of the forewings.

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

The species is found in

Queensland.

The adult moths of species in the genus Ceryx are similar to those of the closely related Amata but the hindwings of Ceryx lack some of the veins present in the hindwings of Amata species.

mating pair
(Photo: courtesy of Richard Seaman, Atherton Tablelands, Queensland)

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Further reading :

Ian F.B. Common,
Moths of Australia, Melbourne University Press, 1990, p. 439.

Edward Meyrick,
Revision of Australian Lepidoptera I,
Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales,
Series 2, Volume 1, Part 3 (1886), p. 774, No. 117.

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(updated 31 March 2004, 31 March 2014, 30 May 2021)