Big fork tail

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Big fork tail
Big forktail (Cerura vinula)

Big forktail ( Cerura vinula )

Systematics
Class : Insects (Insecta)
Order : Butterflies (Lepidoptera)
Family : Toothed Moth (Notodontidae)
Subfamily : Notodontinae
Genre : Cerura
Type : Big fork tail
Scientific name
Cerura vinula
( Linnaeus , 1758)
Great forktail caterpillar
Head of the Great Forktail Caterpillar

The great forktail ( Cerura vinula ) is a butterfly ( moth ) from the family of the tooth spinner (Notodontidae).

features

The moths reach a wingspan of 58 to 75 millimeters, with the males being slightly smaller. They have white or yellowish-gray forewings, which are drawn with dark lines. On the outer edge of the wings these lines form several wavy lines. The hind wings are lighter gray, in the females they are almost transparent. The body of the animals is also colored white-gray and has black cross bars on the upper side of the abdomen.

The caterpillars are about 80 millimeters long and have a very clumsy build. They are brightly light green in color and have a black-brown, white bordered back markings that run triangular in the middle of the body to the side of the body. Sometimes they have a white, round, red spot on the seventh segment. Young caterpillars are completely black and have two ear-shaped buttons behind the head, old caterpillars are dark red-brown shortly before pupation. The head is dark, around it the body is conspicuously pink and light colored on the outside. There are two black pseudo eyes on the top of this ring . The sternum pairs are black and lightly ringed. The abdomen ends in a tail fork with two long, dark-colored tips from which red threads can be turned out.

Similar species

Occurrence

They are common and widespread in all of Europe except in the far north, east to China and live in slightly moist, sunny to partially shaded places with stocks of their forage plants such as. B. at forest edges , gravel pits and at the edges of waters.

Way of life

Great forked tail caterpillar just before pupation

The caterpillars have a remarkable defense behavior. You pull your head into the first breast segment and stretch the red area around it and the pseudo-eyes towards the enemy. By pulling in, the caterpillar also becomes significantly thicker. In addition, they can each turn out a long, red tube from the double tail at the end of the abdomen, which can perform trembling movements. If the caterpillar is further irritated, it can squirt about 30 centimeters of formic acid , which is produced in a gland , from a gap on the underside of the head .

Flight and caterpillar times

The nocturnal moths fly annually in one generation from late April to early July. The caterpillars are found from June to September.

Food of the caterpillars

The caterpillars feed on the leaves of young and therefore not too tall trembling poplars ( Populus tremula ), other poplar species , Sal willow ( Salix caprea ) and other willow species.

development

The females lay their 1.5-millimeter, chocolate-brown, hemispherical eggs mostly in pairs, more rarely individually, on the upper side of the leaves of their forage plants. The caterpillars mostly pupate at the base of the trunk on the bark, in which they gnaw a shallow hollow. Sometimes you can find them on bits of branch lying around in the litter. They produce a flat, egg-shaped, very firm and thick-walled cocoon from the filaments and the wood chips . This is perfectly camouflaged on the bark. Sawdust can be given to the caterpillar as a substitute during rearing. The doll is thick and dark red-brown in color. It overwinters before the moth hatches in spring. Since the cocoon is solidly built, the moths have to secrete a liquid before breaking open, which softens it.

swell

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Manfred Koch : We identify butterflies. Volume 2: Bears, Spinners, Swarmers and Drills in Germany. 2nd, expanded edition. Neumann, Radebeul / Berlin 1964, DNB 452481929 , p. 112f.

literature

  • Heiko Bellmann : The new Kosmos butterfly guide. Butterflies, caterpillars and forage plants. Franckh-Kosmos, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-440-09330-1 .
  • Hans-Josef Weidemann, Jochen Köhler: Moths, Spinners and Swarmers . Naturbuch-Verlag, Augsburg 1996, ISBN 3-89440-128-1
  • Detlef Bückmann : The change in color caused by the moulting hormone in Cerura vinula L. (Lepidoptera Notodontidae). In: J. Insect Physiol. Pp. 159-189, 1959

Web links

Commons : Big fork tail  album with pictures, videos and audio files