Paranthrene Hübner, [1819]

This genus is well known from the Palaearctic and Nearctic regions. Numerous species have also been described from Africa and South East Asia. However, most of them are likely to belong to other related genera.

Species of Paranthrene can be recognized by the morphology of the male genitalia (with soft multifurcate scales covering the valvae), the structure of the antennae (long, reaching the discal spot) and of the labial palps (narrow and smoothly scaled) as well as the size of the head (relatively small, about ½ of the width of the thorax).

During the course of this study several species formerly associated with Paranthrene were found to belong to Nokona (see below for details). One species, Cyanosesia panorpaeformis (Boisduval, [1875]) comb. nov., originally described in Sesia, but later considered belonging to Paranthrene, is hereby transferred from Paranthrenini to Sesiini .