Tree whiteling

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Tree white butterfly
Tree whiteling (Aporia crataegi)

Tree whiteling ( Aporia crataegi )

Systematics
Class : Insects (Insecta)
Order : Butterflies (Lepidoptera)
Family : Whitelings (Pieridae)
Subfamily : True whiteflies (Pierinae)
Genre : Aporia
Type : Tree white butterfly
Scientific name
Aporia crataegi
( Linnaeus , 1758)
Tree whites mating
Females with no discoid spot and poor scaling
The caterpillar of the tree whitefly shortly before molting into a pupa
Tree Whitetail pupa

The tree whitefly ( Aporia crataegi ) is a butterfly ( butterfly ) from the whitefly family ( Pieridae ). The specific epithet is derived from the plant species of the genus Crataegus ( hawthorns ), whose leaves represent a food for the caterpillars .

features

butterfly

The wing surfaces are white, while the black colored veins of the males stand out clearly. The males always have a black discoid spot on the forewings, which is often missing in the females. In addition, these can be recognized by the brownish colored veins and a weaker scaling of the wings. The wingspan is between 60 and 80 millimeters.

Caterpillar

The caterpillars are grayish hairy with black red markings on the back.

Occurrence

A. crataegi is widespread and common. Its distribution area extends from northwest Africa in the west to Transcaucasia and Japan in the east. In the south it can be found in Turkey , Cyprus , Israel , Lebanon and Syria . However, it is not found in the British Isles and northern Scandinavia .

The tree whiteling is very variable in terms of its habitat. It occurs in sunny, bushy locations. This includes in particular cultivated land with numerous forage plants. He shows a fondness for the open terrain where thistles are found.

Way of life

The females lay 70 to 90 yellowish eggs in clutches on the leaves of the feeding plants (including Prunus , Cerasus and Crataegus species, Padus avium , Pyrus communis , Malus domestica , Sorbus aucuparia ). The common hawthorn ( Crataegus monogyna ) is often preferred. After about 14 days these turn green and one day later the caterpillars hatch. These are gray-brown and hibernate socially in a web. After wintering, they become more colorful, gray with black stripes and yellowish spots. They are noticeably very hairy. The dolls are colored yellow and have a pattern of black dots. The mating of the tree whites often takes place immediately after the female hatches. The moths find their food on the flowers of various types of thistle , alfalfa , adder's head , meadow sage , red meadow clover and red dogwood . They are also often observed when they take up minerals in large numbers in puddles. Occasionally there are mass reproductions of the white tree, for example in Baden-Württemberg in the Upper Rhine Plain from 1977 to 1988. This mass occurrence had its starting point at the Mannheim motorway junction. In connection with the above-mentioned mass reproduction, a competitive behavior between the tree whitefly and the golden juvenile ( Euproctis chrysorrhoea ) has been established, in which the latter species follows the tree whitewash for reasons that are not yet known when it comes to repopulating a suitable habitat.

Flight and caterpillar times

A. crataegi flies in one generation: in Northern Europe from late May to early June and in Southern Europe from mid-April to July. The young caterpillars can be observed in August. After overwintering, the larvae continue their development in the following year when the forage plants start to sprout from the end of March / beginning of April.

Hazard and protection

Red List FRG: 4 (potentially endangered)

swell

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Arnold Spuler: The butterflies of Europe . tape 1 . E. Schweitzerbartsche Verlagbuchhandlung, Stuttgart 1908, p. 5 .
  2. ↑ a b c Elizabeth Balmer: Butterflies: Recognize and determine. Parragon Books Ltd., 2007, ISBN 9781407512037 , p. 46
  3. ↑ a b Sauer's natural guide - The most beautiful caterpillars. 1992, Fauna-Verlag, ISBN 3-923010-19-2 , p. 54
  4. ↑ Hans-Josef Weidemann: Butterfly: observe, determine . Naturbuch-Verlag, Augsburg 1995, ISBN 3-89440-115-X .
  5. ↑ a b W. Düring: Baumweißling. In: Species portraits of butterflies in Rhineland-Palatinate. BUND RLP, January 24, 2018, accessed on July 18, 2020 (German).
  6. ↑ Butterfly. 2. Special part: Satyridae, Libytheidae, Lycaenidae, Hesperiidae . In: Günter Ebert, Erwin Rennwald (eds.): The butterflies of Baden-Württemberg . 1st edition. tape 2 . Ulmer, Stuttgart (Hohenheim) 1991, ISBN 3-8001-3459-4 .
  7. ↑ Manfred Koch , Wolfgang Heinicke: We determine butterflies. 3. Edition. Neumann, Radebeul 1991, ISBN 3-7402-0092-8 .
  8. ↑ Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (Ed.): Red List of Endangered Animals in Germany . Landwirtschaftsverlag, Münster 1998, ISBN 3-89624-110-9 .

literature

  • Tom Tolman, Richard Lewington: The butterflies of Europe and Northwest Africa . Franckh-Kosmos, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-440-07573-7 .

Web links

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