Scabiosa swarmers
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Scabiosa swarmers ( Hemaris tityus ) |
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| Hemaris tityus | ||||||||||||
| ( Linnaeus , 1758) |
The scabiosa swarm ( Hemaris tityus ) is a butterfly ( moth ) from the family of swarms (Sphingidae). The species is one of the four exclusively diurnal swarm species in Europe. The population of the species that used to be common in Central Europe has decreased drastically due to land consolidation and intensive grassland use of their habitats. The species got its German name from the food plants of its caterpillars, some of which were previously classified in the genus of scabiosa .
features
butterfly
The moths reach a wingspan of 40 to 50 millimeters, with an average fore wing length of about 22 millimeters. Like other species of the genus Hemaris , the scabiosa swarm shows a strong resemblance to bumblebees . The two pairs of wings are largely transparent, only the outer edge of the forewings is brown, especially towards the wing tip. The wing veins are also colored brown. The thorax is very hairy yellowish brown to olive green, on the sides there is a light yellowish tuft of hair. The abdomen is also very hairy. Towards the thorax the hair is pale yellow, in the middle it is brown, in the rear third of the abdomen it is yellow in the middle and whitish on the sides. There is a black tuft of hair at the end of the abdomen. In particular, the middle area of the abdomen with the brown hair wears down heavily, so that the dark, shiny metallic color of the body can be seen in older butterflies in this area.
The evenly club-shaped, thickened antennae are also shiny dark metallic. The species can be distinguished from the very similar bumblebee hawkmoth ( Hemaris fuciformis ) mainly by the undivided and unspotted costal field - the wing field that closes at the front with the costalader (the leading edge of the wing) - by the significantly narrower hem on the outer edge of the forewing and by the different coloration of the abdominal hair become. Freshly hatched specimens are more difficult to distinguish because their wings are still completely covered with gray scales , but these come off during the first flight. The olive-green bumblebee hawkmoth ( Hemaris croatica ) also bears a certain resemblance to the species, but can be easily distinguished due to its fully colored wings.
Similar species
- Olive-green bumble bee ( Hemaris croatica )
- Bumble bee ( Hemaris fuciformis )
Caterpillars
The caterpillars are up to 50 millimeters long. After hatching, they are about three millimeters long and initially covered with small black point warts from which forked black hairs arise. The short anal horn has two black hairs on its tip. With age, the body gradually turns more green, the anal horn becomes purple-reddish, a pale longitudinal line is formed on both sides of the back, and on the sides of the body on each segment around the stigma a light brown to purple-colored, sloping seat appears , elongated spot. Fully developed, the caterpillars have a whitish-green base color, a purple belly and purple spots on the sides of the body, a short, plump, purple anal horn and a rough body surface. In addition, other purple spots can be distributed on the body, which occurs mainly in caterpillars that eat scabioses with purple-spotted stems. These caterpillars are completely purple in color shortly before pupation.
Occurrence
The scabiosa swarm can be found in almost all of Europe. The distribution area extends in the west from Ireland over Central Europe eastwards to Central and East Asia. The species is absent in the far north, in large parts of the Iberian Peninsula , where it is only found in some mountainous regions and in the northeast, and in the Netherlands , where it became extinct at the same time as the scabiosa butterfly ( Euphydryas aurinia ) due to habitat loss. The species is also in decline in eastern Finland , as suitable dry habitats are becoming rarer there. In Asia it is widespread from the Urals over the west of Siberia to the Altai Mountains and Tianshan . In the south of Asia the distribution extends from Turkey to the north of Iran and the southwest of Syria . East of the Altai and Novosibirsk , in the rest of southern Siberia and northeastern China as far as Tibet , the species is rare. The animals live in meadows, along roadsides and in sparse forests with abundant flowering, especially on chalky and sandy soils. They rise in the Alps to around 2,000 meters, in Asia they are known from Kyrgyzstan even up to an altitude of 3,600 meters.
Way of life
The moths are, unusual for swarmers, like the other species of the genus diurnal. They are mainly active between 10:00 and 15:00 and fly quickly from flower to flower in search of nectar. Preferred food plants are Günsel ( Ajuga ), Gundermann ( Glechoma ), Pechnelken ( Lychnis ), sage ( Salvia ), lung herbs ( Pulmonaria ) and widow flowers ( Knautia ). Although they imitate bumblebees with their appearance, they are many times faster and more active than them. This can be seen well during courtship, when the partners pursue each other in wild flight and often spiral upwards. The mating, during which the two partners are connected to the body in opposite directions on the abdomen, takes about two hours.
Flight and caterpillar times
The moths fly in one generation in northern Europe from mid-May to mid-June, sometimes until the beginning of July. A second generation with incomplete development occurs only occasionally in August. In the south, the species flies in two generations from late April to early May and in August. The flight time varies greatly in the mountains of Asia. In the high mountains of Kyrgyzstan at over 3,000 meters, the species flies at the end of June, in western Mongolia at 2,000 meters as early as mid-May, in the Altai it flies from July. The caterpillars are found in northern Europe in June and July, in the rest of Europe from May to September.
Food of the caterpillars
In Northern and Central Europe, the caterpillars feed mainly on the common devil's bite ( Succisa pratensis ) and on the field scabious ( Knautia arvensis ). In addition, scabiosis ( Scabiosa ), rennet herbs ( Galium ), honeysuckle ( Lonicera ), snowberries ( Symphoricarpos ), cardens ( Dipsacus ) and pechartite ( Lychnis ) are named as caterpillar fodder plants.
development
The females lay their 1.1 by 1.0 millimeter large, pale green shimmering eggs, which are slightly dented on the top, individually on the underside of the leaves of the caterpillar forage plants. Often up to six eggs are laid per plant or group of plants. The mostly nocturnal caterpillars hatch after about a week. They live almost exclusively on the underside of the leaves and, sitting on the midrib, eat small holes on both sides of the leaf. If you disturb the caterpillar during the day, it will drop to the ground, where it can occasionally be found when it is not eating. It is remarkable that the caterpillars of the same clutch develop at different speeds under the same conditions. Regardless of this, they are developed faster than the caterpillars of other hawk species.
Pupation takes place in a stable, coarse cocoon between blades of grass, tufts of grass or lightly buried in the ground. The doll is 24 to 27 millimeters long and has the typical shape of the species: a wrinkled, shiny surface, the proboscis runs unrolled along the top of the doll, and the two ends of the doll are cone-shaped: the Kremaster is flat and triangular, on the head sit two pointed processes. The pupa is colored black-brown, the transitions between the segments are red-brown. Hibernation takes place as a pupa, the butterfly hatches in spring. Parasitoids of the scabiosa swarm are not known.
Hazard and protection
Although the scabiosa swarm was still to be found frequently in the 1960s, for example on the Rhine dams and other wastelands , land consolidation and intensive mowing led to a considerable decline in the population. In Germany, the species is classified as "critically endangered" (category 2) on the Red List of Threatened Species . In some parts of the country it is considered to be extinct, so that current occurrences in the Kaiserstuhl , on the Swabian Alb and in Tauberland ( Baden-Württemberg ) must be designated as retreat areas. For currently known occurrences, the survival of the species often depends on the care and preservation of their biotopes.
swell
Individual evidence
- ↑ Sphingidae of the Western Palaearctic. AR Pittaway, accessed October 26, 2007 .
literature
- AR Pittaway: The Hawkmoths of the western Palaearctic. Harley Books 1993, ISBN 0-946589-21-6
- Hans-Josef Weidemann, Jochen Köhler: Moths. Weirdos and hawkers. Naturbuch-Verlag, Augsburg 1996, ISBN 3-89440-128-1 .
- David J. Carter, Brian Hargreaves: Caterpillars and Butterflies of Europe and their Forage Plants. Blackwell Wissenschaftsverlag 1987, ISBN 3-8263-8139-4
- Günter Ebert (Ed.): The Butterflies of Baden-Württemberg Volume 4, Moths II (Bombycidae, Endromidae, Lasiocampidae, Lemoniidae, Saturniidae, Sphingidae, Drepanidae, Notodontidae, Dilobidae, Lymantriidae, Ctenuchidae, Nolidae). Ulmer Verlag Stuttgart 1994. ISBN 3-8001-3474-8
- Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (Ed.): Red List of Endangered Animals in Germany. Landwirtschaftsverlag, Münster 1998, ISBN 978-3-89624-110-8
- Axel Hausmann, Michael A. Miller: Atlas of the caterpillars of European and Asia Minor butterflies, photographed by Burkhard Nippe , Verlag Dr. Friedrich Pfeil, Munich, 2000, ISBN 3-931516-79-2
- Ian J. Kitching, Jean-Marie Cadiou: Hawkmoths of the World. An Annotated and Illustrated Revisionary Checklist (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae). Cornell University Press, New York 2000, ISBN 0-8014-3734-2
Web links
- www.lepiforum.de Taxonomy and photos
- www.schmetterling-raupe.de
- Moths and Butterflies of Europe and North Africa (English)
- Hemaris tityus at Fauna Europaea
