Family CASTNIIDAE

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Introduction

The first Australian castniid species named was Synemon sophia (White), described from Albany, Western Australia, by White (1841). Almost invariably it has been misidentified ever since. Klug (1850) published a detailed account of the species found near Adelaide and Walker (1854a) and Boisduval [1875] catalogued the species then known. Westwood (1877) published a detailed account of the family. Since then the Australian species have not been revised but a revision is currently in progress. The family was included in Seitz's Macrolepidoptera of the World by Strand (1911a) and in Lepidopterorum Catalogus by Dalla Torre (1913).

The family contains 24 described species in Australia, all currently placed in the genus Synemon Doubleday, with another 20 undescribed species.

The biology of Australian species was recorded by Tindale (1928), Common & Edwards (1981) and Edwards (1991b). The known species feed underground on grasses and sedges.

Castniidae occur widely in Australia except for the most arid and saline areas but are absent from Tasmania. The grass feeding species in particular have suffered drastic reductions in distribution from the use of grasslands for agriculture, and some species are endangered or extinct.

General References

Boisduval, J.-A. 1875. [1874] Sphingides, Sésiides, Castnides. In, Boisduval, J.-A. & Guenée, A. (eds). Histoire Naturelle des Insectes. Species Général des Lépidoptères Hétérocères. Paris : Librarie Encyclopedique de Roret Vol. 1 568 pp. [dated 1874 but not published until 1875]

Common, I.F.B. & Edwards, E.D. 1981. The life history and early stages of Synemon magnifica Strand (Lepidoptera: Castniidae). Journal of the Australian Entomological Society 20: 295-302

Dalla Torre, K.W. von 1913. Castniidae: Subfam. Castniinae, Neocastniinae, Pemphigostolinae. Lepidopterorum Catalogus 15: 1-28

Edwards, E.D. 1991. Synemon plana — a grasslands case history. pp. 20-23 in Falconer, R. (ed.). The ACT's native grasslands. Proceedings of a workshop held at the conference room of the National Museum of Australia, Canberra. Canberra : Conservation Council of the South-East Region & Canberra 49 pp.

Klug, [J.C.F.] 1850. Über die Lepidopteren-Gattung Synemon. Nebst einem Nachtrage über Castniae. Abhandlungen der Königlich-Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Berlin 1848: 245-257, l pl.

Strand, E. 1911. Castniidae. 1-4, pls 1, 9 in Seitz, A. (ed.). The Macrolepidoptera of the World. 10. Bombyces and Sphinges of the Indo-Australian Region. 2 vols. Stuttgart : Alfred Kernen Verlag 909 pp., 100 pls.

Tindale, N.B. 1928. Preliminary note on the life history of Synemon (Lepidoptera, Fam. Castniidae). Records of the South Australian Museum (Adelaide) 4: 143-144

Walker, F. 1854. Lepidoptera Heterocera. List of the Specimens of Lepidopterous Insects in the Collection of the British Museum 1: 1-278

Westwood, J.O. 1877. A monograph of the Lepidopterous genus Castnia and some allied groups. Transactions of the Linnean Society of London 2nd Series Zoology 1: 155-207, pls 28-33

White, A. 1841. Notes on some insects from King George's Sound, collected and presented to the British Museum by Captain George Grey. pp. 450-482 in Grey, G. (ed.). Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in North-west and Western Australia, during the years 1837, 38, and 39, under the authorship of Her Majesty's Government. Describing many newly discovered, important, and fertile districts, with observations on the moral and physical condition of the Aboriginal inhabitants, &c & c. 2 vols. London : T. & W. Boone 412+482 pp., frontispiece, 2 maps. [also published in facsimile edition: Expeditions in Western Australia 1837-1839 (1983). Victoria Park : Hesperia Press]

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