Parapoynx fluctuosalis or Fluctuating China-mark or Waved China-mark, is a moth of the family Crambidae. It is a widespread species, known from Africa, India, Sri Lanka, China, Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan, Guam, Hawaii, Fiji, Australia and the Galápagos Islands. It is also an introduced species in Europe, where it has been recorded from Great Britain, the Iberian Peninsula and Sardinia.

Parapoynx fluctuosalis
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Crambidae
Genus:	Parapoynx
Species:	P. fluctuosalis
Binomial name
Parapoynx fluctuosalis (Meyrick, 1899)
Synonyms
Nymphula fluctuosalis Zeller, 1852 Paraponyx fluctuosalis Parapoynx linealis Guenée, 1854 Oligostigma curta Butler, 1879 Oligostigma chrysippusalis Walker, 1859 Oligostigma obitalis Walker, 1859 Nymphula luteivittalis Mabille, 1880 Paraponyx cryzalis Wood-Mason, 1885 Paraponyx oryzalis Wood-Mason, 1885 Paraponyx rugosalis Möschler, 1890 Nymphula circealis Walker, 1859[1]

Adults are sexually dimorphic, with a variable colouration of the wings.[2]

The larvae feed on various grasses growing in water, including Nymphaea species and rice. The larvae are aquatic and form a case of leaf fragments. They live about the bases of their host plants and have occasionally been found on water lily leaves. Young larvae have a pair of long hairs on the dorsum of the terminal segment and there are also some sparse shorter hairs. Later on, it acquires fine filamentous gills enclosing air tubes that join the longitudinal tracheal trunks. The pupa is formed within a case or cocoon.

Subspecies

• Parapoynx fluctuosalis fluctuosalis (Africa)
• Parapoynx fluctuosalis linealis Guenée, 1854 (Asia)

References

Wikispecies has information related to Parapoynx fluctuosalis.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Parapoynx fluctuosalis.

External links

• Zimmerman, Elwood C. (1958). Insects of Hawaii. Vol. 8 Lepidoptera: Pyraloidea. University of Hawaii Press. hdl:10125/7337.
• Parapoynx fluctuosalis. CSIRO - Australian Moths Online. Retrieved 22 November 2017.