Valerian butterfly
| Valerian butterfly | ||||||||||||
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Valerian butterfly ( Melitaea diamina ) |
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| Melitaea diamina | ||||||||||||
| ( Lang , 1789) |
The Valerian-Scheckenfalter or Silberscheckenfalter ( Melitaea diamina ) is a butterfly (day butterfly ) from the family of the noble butterfly (Nymphalidae).
features
The moths reach a wingspan of about 33 millimeters. They have the typical drawing of their genus, but this is very much darkened, especially on the hind wings. They have a dark brown basic color, in addition to which orange spots are distributed mainly on the front wings, but also on the hind wings. The undersides of the hind wings are brightly colored orange, yellow and white. At the edge there are whitish marginal moons that border towards the inside on orange fields in which there are spots that are at least partly black and white in some.
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The caterpillars are about 25 millimeters long. They are plump and dark gray in color with numerous small, white spots. They also have white side lines. Her body is provided with many thorns that are yellow-orange in color and turn light towards the tip.
Occurrence
The animals are widespread in Central Europe , but rare in Northern Germany . They are also found in much of Asia . They are only common in places and live in humid and sunny locations, such as B. on litter meadows on the edge of moors but also in moist and light-flooded forests and in some places on dry grass .
Way of life
They fly annually in one generation from May to July, in warm regions they fly in two generations from May to July and from August to September.
Food of the caterpillars
The caterpillars feed on the leaves of the small valerian ( Valeriana dioica ) and other types of valerian .
development
The females lay their eggs in small groups under the leaves of their forage plants. The young caterpillars live together in a web. They overwinter between dry leaves and only become loners after overwintering.
swell
literature
- Heiko Bellmann : The new Kosmos butterfly guide. Butterflies, caterpillars and forage plants. Franckh-Kosmos, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-440-09330-1 .
- Günter Ebert (Ed.): The butterflies of Baden-Württemberg. Volume 1: Butterfly I (Knight Butterfly (Papilionidae), Whiteflies (Pieridae), Edelfalter (Nymphalidae)) . Ulmer-Verlag, Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-8001-3451-9 .
- Tom Tolman, Richard Lewington: The butterflies of Europe and Northwest Africa. Franckh-Kosmos Verlag, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-440-07573-7 .
- Hans-Josef Weidemann: Butterfly. Observe, determine . Naturbuch-Verlag, Augsburg 1995, ISBN 3-89440-115-X .
Web links
- Lepiforum e. V. Taxonomy and Photos
- Species portraits of butterflies in Rhineland-Palatinate - Valerian-Scheckenfalter
- Melitaea diamina at Fauna Europaea
- www.schmetterling-raupe.de
- Melitaea diamina more photos at www.pieris.ch
- Moths and Butterflies of Europe and North Africa