Synemon selene Klug, 1850
Pale Sun Moth
 (one synonym : Synemon adelaida Swinhoe, 1892)
CASTNIIDAE,   SESIOIDEA
 
Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley

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

The adult moths have dark brown wings with variable markings often including, two white spots on each forewing.

Synemon selene
male, listed as Synemon selene,
lithograph by Bernhard Wienker for Klug,
Uber die Lepidoptereren-Gattung Synemon,
Abhandlungen der Königlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, 1848, Plate 1, fig. 3,
image courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library, digitized by Smithsonian Libraries.

The males have a broad broken orange markings on each hindwing. The wingspan of the males is about 3.5 cms.

Synemon selene
female, listed as Synemon selene,
lithograph by Bernhard Wienker for Klug,
Uber die Lepidoptereren-Gattung Synemon,
Abhandlungen der Königlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, 1848, Plate 1, fig. 4,
image courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library, digitized by Smithsonian Libraries.

The females have a broad broken yellow markings on each hindwing, and a fatter abdomen. The wingspan of the females is about 4.5 cms.

The species has been found in

  • Victoria, and
  • South Australia.

    Synemon selene
    listed as Synemon adelaida    ,
    drawing by F.C. Moore, lithograph by Mintern Bros. for Swinhoe,
    Catalogue of eastern and Australian Lepidoptera Heterocera in the collection of the Oxford University Museum,
    Part 1: Sphinges and Bombyces (1892), Plate VII, Fig. 10,
    image courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library, digitized by Smithsonian Libraries.

    Further reading :

    Johann Christoph Friedrich Klug,
    Uber dieLepidopteren-Gattung Synemon,
    Abhandlungen der Koeniglich-Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften,
    Berlin, 1848, p. 249 and figs. 3 & 4.

    Caterpillars, moths, and their plants of Southern Australia,
    Peter B. McQuillan, Jan A. Forrest, David Keane, & Roger Grund,
    Butterfly Conservation South Australia Inc., Adelaide (2019), p. 71.

    Charles Swinhoe,
    Sphinges and Bombyces,
    Catalogue of eastern and Australian Lepidoptera Heterocera in the collection of the Oxford University Museum,
    Clarendon Press, Part 1 (1892), p. 154, No. 711,, and also Plate 7, Fig. 10.

    Paul Zborowski and Ted Edwards,
    A Guide to Australian Moths,
    CSIRO Publishing, 2007, p. 27.

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    (written 20 February 2015, updated 27 September 2026)