Scabiosa butterfly

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Scabiosa butterfly
Scabiosa butterfly (Euphydryas aurinia)

Scabiosa butterfly ( Euphydryas aurinia )

Systematics
Subordination : Glossata
Family : Noble butterfly (Nymphalidae)
Subfamily : Spotted butterfly (Nymphalinae)
Tribe : Common piebald (Melitaeini)
Genre : Euphydryas
Type : Scabiosa butterfly
Scientific name
Euphydryas aurinia
( Rottemburg , 1758)
Euphydryas aurinia beckeri
Egg clutches of the scabiosa pied butterfly
Young caterpillars of the scabious pied butterfly
Scabiosa caterpillar
Puppet of the scabiosa pied butterfly

The Scabiosen-Scheckenfalter ( Euphydryas aurinia , Syn .: Eurodryas aurinia ) or also Goldener Scheckenfalter , Abbiss-Scheckenfalter is a butterfly ( butterfly ) from the family of the noble butterfly (Nymphalidae).

features

The moths reach a wingspan of 35 to 38 millimeters. They have dark wing tops, which are dominated by an almost rectangular pattern consisting of light and dark orange surfaces, but which is partly missing around the base of the wing. The orange areas form a band that runs near the rear edge of the wings. The surfaces are darkly cored on the hind wings. The underside of the hind wings are cream-colored and orange, with several spots on the front of the hind wings and a cream-colored band in the middle and on the edge. Between the two bands there is a slightly faded yellow row of dots with a black core. In general, the undersides are only dull and washed out in color.

  • Top

  • bottom

In the mountains, the moths have a different color. They are significantly smaller and, in addition to paler colors, also have significantly smaller colored areas. The dark brown basic color dominates. However, these animals do not form a subspecies, as a continuous change takes place depending on the altitude. This is influenced by the various environmental conditions. The caterpillars of these forms are also colored differently: They are black and only have very small white dots distributed over the whole body.

The caterpillars are about 30 millimeters long and black. They have a lot of white spots on their backs and a white and black ribbon on the sides.

Similar species

Subspecies

distribution

The animals are found all over Europe (with the exception of northern Scandinavia , Greece and large parts of Great Britain). In Italy you can only find them in the very north. In addition, the species occurs in Morocco , Turkey , Algeria and the temperate latitudes of Asia to Korea . You can find them up to an altitude of 2200 meters. They live both in wetlands and wet meadows as well as on dry grassland, although they are very much in decline and very rare due to the intensification of agriculture. The mountain forms are common in the Central Alps . The species is registered in the Red List of Germany as "critically endangered" (Category 2). In addition, the species is listed in Appendix II of the Habitats Directive ; it is "strictly protected" and specially protected areas are to be set up for its occurrence. In Austria , the species was still known in the middle of the 20th century for its countless populations on almost all of the wetter meadows. Today it is a highly regressive species, a highly sensitive bio-indicator and a conspicuous refuge from culture .

To encourage resettlement in Schleswig-Holstein, 18,000 caterpillars were released in July 2014 in the “ Binnendünen Nordoe ” nature reserve . The settlement is considered successful. A resettlement in seven fens in Brandenburg was successful after ten years on two areas.

Flight time

Depending on the location, the moths fly in one generation between mid-April and mid-July.

Food of the caterpillars

The caterpillars feed in wetlands especially Devil's ( Succisa pratensis ), on dry grass they feed on pigeon scabious ( Scabiosa columbaria ) and less frequently by other carding plants and gentians . The mountain forms feed on the Clusius gentian ( Gentiana clusii ) and Koch's gentian ( Gentiana acaulis ).

development

The females lay their eggs close together in ice mirrors on the underside of the leaves of the forage plants. The caterpillars hatch in midsummer and live together in a web in company. This web gradually spreads from one leaf to several neighboring ones. In August, a new web is built from the several millimeter long caterpillars. They winter in it. In the next year they will eat solitary until the end of April or the beginning of May, until they are fully grown.

swell

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Elizabeth Balmer: Butterflies: Recognize and Determine. Parragon Books, 2007, ISBN 978-1-4075-1203-7
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Heiko Bellmann : The new Kosmos butterfly guide, butterflies, caterpillars and forage plants . Franckh-Kosmos, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-440-09330-1 .
  3. ↑ a b Tom Tolman, Richard Lewington: The butterflies of Europe and Northwest Africa . Franckh-Kosmos, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-440-07573-7 .
  4. ↑ Gerfried Deschka, Josef Wimmer, The Butterfly Fauna of the Cross Wall, Contribution. Naturk. Upper Austria, 2000
  5. ↑ Caterpillars conquer the Nordoer inland dune
  6. ↑ ... the butterfly is flying again in the Nordoer Heide
  7. ↑ Successful project: The Golden Pied Butterfly back in the north
  8. ↑ Hartmut Kretschmer, Heinz Salpeter & Jörg Gelbrecht: Results on the reintroduction of the golden piebald butterfly ( Euphydryas aurinia ROTTEMBURG, 1775) in Brandenburg - a balance after ten years. Märkische Ent. News 2016 Volume 17, Issue 2, pp. 219–238.

literature

  • Hans-Josef Weidemann: Butterflies: observe, determine . Naturbuch-Verlag, Augsburg 1995, ISBN 3-89440-115-X .
  • Günter Ebert, Erwin Rennwald (ed.): The butterflies of Baden-Württemberg . 1st edition. tape 1 . Butterflies . 1. General part: systematics, taxonomy and nomenclature, faunistics and ecology, endangerment and protection, data processing; Special part: Papilionidae, Pieridae, Nymphalidae . Ulmer, Stuttgart 1991, ISBN 3-8001-3451-9 .

Web links

Commons : Scabiosa Butterfly  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files