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Species Paranthrene robiniae - Western Poplar Clearwing - Hodges#2526
Classification Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Lepidoptera (Butterflies and Moths)
Superfamily Cossoidea (Carpenter and Clearwing Moths)
Family Sesiidae (Clearwing Moths)
Subfamily Tinthiinae
Tribe Paranthrenini
Genus Paranthrene
Species robiniae (Western Poplar Clearwing - Hodges#2526)
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes Paranthrene robiniae (Hy. Edwards, 1880)
Sciapteron robiniae Hy. Edwards, 1880
Memythrus robiniae
* phylogenetic sequence #079125
Explanation of Names Specific name robiniae is from the plant genus Robinia, one of the larval hosts Edwards listed in his description.
Numbers Two other forms have been recognized: P. r. perlucida , and P. r. palescens.
Size Wingspan: ♂ 23-30 mm, ♀ 30-36 mm. (1)
Forewing length 11-18 mm. (2), (3)
Identification Adult - colored almost exactly like a paper wasp. Mostly yellow, first three abdominal segments black. Head is black, with yellow facial scales. FW orange brown with darker veins; HW clear with a deep yellow discal mark, fringed with dark brown scales. Antennae of males are bipectinate, simple in females.
Larva - white to grayish white with brown head and thoracid shield. (1)
Range From Alaska, along the Pacific coast to southern CA, inland to the desert Southwest, throughout the Rockies, east to North Dakota and Kansas. Pohl et al. adds Alberta, Canada. (2)
Type Location: Virginia City, Nevada.
Food Larvae bore the wood of poplars ( Populus, Salicaceae) and willows ( Salix, Salicaceae) and ornamental birches in Betula (Betulaceae), often in trees already weakened by wood-boring beetles. Edwards reported them on black locust ( Robinia pseudoacacia, Fabaceae), as well as Populus, but later researchers do not mention locust. (2), (3)
Life Cycle Eggs are laid in bark crevices and wounds and hatch in about 20 days. Overwinters as larva in a pupal chamber which is capped with silk. Pupation occurs in late May or June of the larva's second year. (2)
Print References Beuttenmüller, W. 1901. Monograph of the Sesiidae of America, north of Mexico. Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History 1(6): 248-249, pl.29, f.15 (4)
Duckworth, W.D & T.D. Eichlin 1978. The Cleawing Moths of California (Lepidoptera: Sesiidae). California Department Of Food and Agriculture Occasional Papers in Entomology 27: 1-80, f.1-40, pl.1-8 ( PDF) (2)
Edwards, Hy. 1880. Descriptions of some new forms of Aegeridae. Bulletin of the Brooklyn Entomological Society 3(8): 72
Eichlin, T.D. 1992. Clearwing Moths of Baja California, Mexico (Lepidoptera: Sesiidae). Tropical Lepidoptera 3(2): 135-150 ( PDF) (5)
Engelhardt, G.P. 1946. The North American Clear-wing Moths of the family Aegeriidae. USNM Bulletin 190: 142-144
Pohl, G.R., C.D. Bird, J.F. Landry, G.G. Anweiler 2005. New records of microlepidoptera in Alberta, Canada. Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society 59(2): 70-71
Powell, J.A. & P.A. Opler 2009. Moths of Western North America. University of California Press. pl.12.45f, p.123 (3)
Solomon, J.D. 1995. Guide to insect borers in North American broadleaf trees and shrubs. USDA Forest Service Agriculture Handbook AH-706: 48-51, f.18 ( download menu) (1)
Internet References Photos of two adult female, and one male specimen: SDNHM
Adult specimen photo (1 male, 1 female): Univ. of Calif. Davis .
Species page at MPG, including distribution map.
Works Cited 1. | Guide to insect borers in North American broadleaf trees and shrubs Solomon, J.D. 1995. USDA Forest Service Agriculture Handbook. 735 pp. | |
2. | The Clearwing Moths of California (Lepidoptera: Sesiidae). W. Donald Duckworth & Thomas D. Eichlin. 1978. California Department Of Food and Agriculture Occasional Papers in Entomology 27: 1-80, f.1-40, pl.1-8. | |
3. | Moths of Western North America Powell and Opler. 2009. UC Press. | |
4. | Monograph of the Sesiidae of America, north of Mexico. William Beutenmüller. 1901. Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History 1(6): 218-352, pl.29-36. | |
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