Acherontia lachesis
| Acherontia lachesis | ||||||||||||
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Acherontia lachesis |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Acherontia lachesis | ||||||||||||
| ( Fabricius , 1798) |
Acherontia lachesis is a butterfly ( moth ) from the family of hawkers (Sphingidae), which is widespread in southern and eastern Asia. Like the other two species of the genus Acherontia , the moths feed on honey from beehives and havethe typical skull-shaped designon their thorax . The specific epithet is derived from the goddess of fate Lachesis , one of the three moirs from Greek mythology.
features
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The moths have a wingspan of 100 to 132 millimeters and are large and powerful. As with the other species of the genus Acherontia , the forewings are darkly piebald, the hind wings are yellow and black, the two black bands typical of the genus are very pronounced and washed out. On the upper side of the thorax is the skull-shaped drawing typical of the genus. The abdomen bears a yellow, rib-like drawing.
Caterpillar
The caterpillars reach a length of 95 to 125 millimeters and are then about 15 millimeters wide. When fully grown, they come in a green, yellow, or brownish-gray color variant, the latter being the most common. In the first caterpillar stage, the animals have a pale yellow head capsule and an equally colored body. The long, straight anal horn ends in a double point. In the later stages, the head capsule, body, and anal horn are green. Gradually, pale yellow oblique stripes form on the side of the body, as well as pointed tubercles that appear from the fourth stage. From the third stage, the caterpillars can be colored gray or canary yellow in addition to green. After the fourth moult, the head has a shiny surface and is provided with a few small, transparent tubercles, which are surrounded by other very small tubercles. The body tapers slightly backwards from the seventh segment. On the three thorax segments, the back is widened in the shape of a strip upwards. The body surface is dull and smooth. The long anal horn is broad at the base and tapers slightly at the beginning, sharply towards the sharp tip. The basal half is slightly curved downwards, the second half strongly curved upwards, the latter sometimes forming a complete ring. Its surface is shiny and has large, conical tubercles.
The brownish gray animals have a black or dark brown head, with a pale brown or white subdorsal stripe and another, similar stripe that separates the face from the chin. These two stripes meet near the apex. Another white dorsal stripe runs from the vertex to the tip of the head capsule, the latter has black borders. In addition to brownish gray, the body can also be colored greenish gray; each hair originates from a dark point with a yellowish border. On the thorax segments there is a narrow, white stripe on the back, a broad, dark subdorsal stripe on each side and a wide white stripe on each side. The subdorsal stripes are interrupted by fine white horizontal stripes between the segments. All of these stripes on the thorax are sharply demarcated. On the second segment there is also a gray-green, saddle-shaped spot, each below the subdorsal stripes. On segments five to eleven there is a sloping, whitish stripe, which is bordered in violet at the top. On the eleventh segment, this stripe extends beyond the segment, on the twelfth segment to the base of the anal horn. The latter is the same color as the body, the thoracic legs are black, the belly legs are greyish-black. The pusher has the basic color of the body, but has a black, triangular mark on the top of the flanks. The stigmas are broad, oval and velvety black, with the upper and lower ends marked in yellow.
The animals of the green color variant have a green head that has a broad, shiny black stripe along the cheeks. Their body is grass-green, with a yellowish tinge and is occasionally dotted dark green on the back of the fifth to eleventh segment. The diagonal stripes on the sides of the abdomen have a yellow border and a broad purple border towards the top. The anal horn is green and has pale green tubercles, the belly bones and the pusher are also green. The head and body of the yellow animals are brightly colored canary yellow and otherwise have the same pattern as the green form.
Doll
The pupa is 57 to 87 millimeters long and about 14 millimeters wide. Their shape is compact, the head is strongly rounded, the antennae are shorter than the front legs. It is dark maroon in color, with the back on segments four to six and the cremaster being almost black. The spiracles are black. The surface of the doll is smooth and shiny, the suction nozzle is clearly apparent basal and carries on both sides a series of 12 short, transverse strips, similar to a coarse file. On the sides, in front of the stigmas, there are parallel bars on the ninth to eleventh segments, each of which is largest on a segment directly on the stigma and then becomes shorter towards the front. The stigma on the second segment is covered by an oblique flap that arises from the elongated leading edge of the third segment. The Kremaster is broadly triangular in shape, the back is roughly wrinkled lengthways. The tip ends in two short teeth, each with a bristle.
Occurrence
The species is distributed almost in the entire Orientalis from India , Pakistan and Nepal to the Philippines and from southern Japan and the south of eastern Russia to Indonesia . In the meantime, the species has also successfully established itself in Hawaii .
Way of life
The moths feed on honey by invading beehives . In the resting position they lay their wings over the abdomen like a roof gable, which completely covers it. If the animals are disturbed, they raise their abdomen from the ground, partially open and lift their wings and make whistling noises. The moths are strongly attracted by artificial light.
Flight and caterpillar times
Depending on the distribution, the moths usually fly in one, in good conditions, such as in Hong Kong, in several generations per year. In China , for example, they occur between May and September, depending on the region, but usually only fly for one to two months, such as from May to June in Guangdong or in August in Jiangxi and Fujian . In Taiwan , the species flies from April to June, in Japan in September, in Russia from August to September and in Hong Kong from March to October, with high points in April, late July and late August.
Food of the caterpillars
The caterpillars feed on a wide range of different plants, including the nightshade family (Solanaceae), verbena family (Verbenaceae), legumes (Fabaceae), olive family (Oleaceae), trumpet tree (Bignoniaceae) and labiatae (Labiatae). From India, coral trees ( Erythrina ), jasmine , potato ( Solanum tuberosum ), Virginian tobacco ( Nicotiana tabacum ), teak tree ( Tectona grandis ) and thorn apples ( Datura ) have been identified as food plants, in Hong Kong the animals mainly eat sweet potatoes ( Ipomoea batatas ), Clerodendrum kaempferi and Erythrina speciosa .
development
The females lay their eggs individually on the underside of the leaves of the food plants. After hatching, the young caterpillars first eat the eggshell and rest on the underside of the leaves on the midrib or a leaf vein. Usually the stripped caterpillar skin is also eaten after each molt. In the resting position, they sit typically for hawkers with a characteristically upright front body. If the animals are disturbed, they strike with their front body and make clicking noises, which are probably made with the mandibles . Caterpillars that are ready to pupate starve for a few days and turn violet on the back in the green color variant, otherwise brown. They go to the ground in search of a suitable place to pupate and move with rapid undulating movements. During this phase, both the thoracic legs and the abdominal legs have little strength to hold on to. Once a suitable place for pupation has been found, the animals bury themselves in the ground in just a few minutes and create an egg-shaped chamber measuring 80 by 40 millimeters, about 15 centimeters deep in the ground. The inside of this chamber is smooth, but not lined with silk. The doll is rather sluggish.
Specialized enemies
The caterpillars of Acherontia lachesis are the parasitic wasps Amblyjoppa cognatoria and Quandrus pepsoides parasitized .
Taxonomy and systematics
The genus name Acherontia is derived from Acheron , one of the five rivers of the underworld from Greek mythology. The specific epithet is derived from the goddess of fate Lachesis , one of the three moirs from Greek mythology, whose task it is to choose which fate falls to the person - it measures the length of the thread of life. The names of the two other species of the genus also have reference to the Greek underworld: Styx is a river of the underworld, Atropos is another moire.
On the basis of morphological studies on adults, caterpillars, pupae and host plants, it could be shown that Acherontia lachesis is the sister taxon of the two closest related species Acherontia atropos and Acherontia styx .
The following relationships result in the genus Acherontia :
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Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Sphingidae of the Eastern Palaearctic. AR Pittaway, accessed August 1, 2008 .
- ↑ Sphingidae of the Western Palaearctic. AR Pittaway, accessed September 25, 2009 .
- ^ A b Ian J. Kitching: Phylogeny of the death's head hawkmoth, Acherontia [Laspeyres], and related genera (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae, Acherontiini). In: Systematic Entomology. No. 28 (2003), pp. 71-88.
