Golden Sun Moth (Synemon plana)
Description
- The Golden Sun Moth is a medium-sized moth, with club-shaped antennae and no functional mouthparts.
- Males and females have different coloured and patterning on their wings.
- Adult moths only live for a few days.
- Males fly low over grasslands during the late morning and early afternoon looking for females perched in grass tussocks.
- Males don't fly more than 100 m away from their habitats, and females rarely move away from their habitats. Populations separated by 200 m or more can become isolated.
- After they mate, female moths move between tussocks to lay their eggs. The larvae develop underground, where they feed on roots of a few species of grasses.
Find out more about the Golden Sun Moth on Canberra NatureMapr.
Where to find them
The species used to live throughout south-eastern Australia in grasslands. Around 99.5% of these grasslands have been destroyed since European settlement. The remaining areas have been grazed by livestock and damaged by weed invasion.
Today, these moths live in:
- leftover patches of temperate grassland
- some open woodlands with grassy areas
- grassy woodlands cleared from trees.
They occupy a habitat that spans around 150km². It has been seen across 78 sites in the ACT, 100 sites in Victoria and 48 sites in NSW.
Conservation threats
The biggest threat to the Golden Sun Moth is the destruction of its habitat. Other threats include:
- further damage and loss of habitat
- weeds filling the spaces between grass clumps and reducing the grasses that moth larvae eat
- wildfire or improper fire management
- too many or not enough plants for food or shelter
- farming and improving pastures
- herbicides, pesticides and too many nutrients from fertilisers
- climate change
Conservation status
- National – Vulnerable (Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999).
- Australian Capital Territory – Vulnerable (Nature Conservation Act 2014).
Conservation actions
Conservation actions aim to:
- research and monitor the species
- conserve their habitat by patch burning
- protect their habitat by managing urban development
- manage nearby land to increase their habitat area and connect populations
- work with researchers and stakeholders to understand the species.