Mountain witch

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Mountain witch
Chazara briseis.jpg

Mountain witch ( Chazara briseis )

Systematics
Class : Insects (Insecta)
Order : Butterflies (Lepidoptera)
Family : Noble butterfly (Nymphalidae)
Subfamily : Eye butterflies (Satyrinae)
Genre : Chazara
Type : Mountain witch
Scientific name
Chazara briseis
( Linnaeus , 1764)
Wing underside

The mountain witch ( Chazara briseis ) is a butterfly (day butterfly ) from the noble butterfly family (Nymphalidae). The specific epithet refers to Briseis , the favorite slave of the Greek warrior Achilles , because of whom he got into an argument with Agamemnon .

features

The moths reach a wingspan of 45 to 60 millimeters, with the females becoming larger than the males and both being significantly larger in the south than in the north of the range. The upper side of the wing is dark brown with a wide longitudinal band composed of transverse oval cream-white spots, which is more indistinct on the hind wings. The front edge of the forewings is mostly white and brown poured over in the males. The underside of the hind wings varies from yellow-brown to gray-brown and has two indistinct dark bands. In females, the white band on the top of the wing is wider and the edge of the forewings is mostly cream-colored. The pattern on the underside of the hind wing is more indistinct and gray-brown poured over it. The females come in two forms. The pirata form, which is rare in Europe and more common in Asia, has a leathery yellow band instead of a creamy white band.

The nominate form ssp. briseis occurs in southern Germany, Austria and Switzerland, the ssp. bataia flies in Central Germany and Bohemia. In this form, the white bands on the upper side of the wing are more or less reduced. In the similar little forest porter ( Hipparchia alcyone ) the white bands are always continuous and never interrupted.

The egg has a number of transverse and longitudinal ribs. The caterpillars are about 30 millimeters long and are colored light yellow-brown. They have a dark brown stripe on the back, which is slightly lightened at the segment boundaries, and two brown side stripes each. The doll is glossy brown.

Similar species

Occurrence

The heat-loving animals occur in dry, sandy or rocky places from North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula through France, southern and central Europe eastward to Inner Asia. The northern limit of distribution in Europe is around 50 ° north. They occur in the Mediterranean only in Corsica, Sicily and Cyprus.

In North Africa the species is common, in Central Europe it occurs only locally, in limestone formations even often in places. In addition to limestone areas, the species can also be found on semi-arid grassland and scree slopes. The vertical distribution in North Africa reaches up to 2000 meters.

Way of life

The moths fly annually in one generation from mid-July to mid-September. They like to sit with folded wings on logs and rocks protected from the wind, which is an excellent camouflage. The folded wings are aligned perpendicular to the sun (lateral absorption sun). The females attach their eggs one at a time to dry blades of grass. The hatched caterpillars then look for a suitable forage plant. They overwinter as a teenage boy and pupate in a cave in the next year.

The main forage plants of the caterpillars are:

Danger

The mountain witch is endangered in Germany (in Saxony the species is extinct, in Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate threatened with extinction, in Thuringia critically endangered and in Saxony-Anhalt endangered).

In Germany the spread is declining. In Baden-Württemberg it only occurs in the east of the Swabian Alb , but was previously widespread in the Neckar- Tauberland and the Swabian Alb with a number of sites and there was an isolated population in the Hegau . There are still three populations in Northern Bavaria for which a species aid program has been in place since 2008.

In Austria, the mountain witch is threatened with extinction. Apart from Lower Austria, where it is highly endangered, it has died out or has been lost in all other federal states in which it was found.

In the Steinfeld near a military training area and in the Hainburg mountains, both in Lower Austria, there are still deposits in Austria. In 2016 she was spotted by a user in St. Pölten and loaded into the butterfly app "Butterflies Austria". Blühendes Österreich and Global 2000 asked for a more detailed search there in July 2018.

Synonyms

  • Satyrus briseis
  • Hipparchia briseis

swell

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Arnold Spuler: The butterflies of Europe , Volume 1, E. Schweizerbart'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Stuttgart, 1908, p. 42
  2. ↑ a b c d Heiko Bellmann : The new cosmos butterfly guide. Butterflies, caterpillars and forage plants. Franckh-Kosmos, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-440-09330-1 , p. 206.
  3. ^ A b LG Higgins, ND Riley: The butterflies of Europe and Northwest Africa . Verlag Paul Parey, Hamburg and Berlin 1978, ISBN 3-490-01918-0 , p. 127 f .
  4. ^ A b Walter Forster , Theodor A. Wohlfahrt : The butterflies of Central Europe. Volume 2: Butterflies. (Rhopalocera and Hesperiidae). Franckh'sche Verlagshandlung, Stuttgart 1955, DNB 456642188 .
  5. ↑ a b c d e Manfred Koch : We determine butterflies. Volume 1: Butterfly. 4th enlarged edition. Neumann, Radebeul / Berlin 1966, DNB 457244224 .
  6. ↑ a b Otakar Kudrna: The distribution atlas of European butterflies . In: oedippus . tape 20 . Apollo Books, Stenstrup Danmark 2002, ISBN 87-88757-56-0 , pp. 171 .
  7. ↑ Red Lists of the FRG
  8. ↑ Tagfalter II (Augenfalter (Satyridae), Bluebirds (Lycaenidae), Dickkopffalter (Hesperiidae)) . In: Günter Ebert, Erwin Rennwald (eds.): The butterflies of Baden-Württemberg . tape  2 . Ulmer Verlag, Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-8001-3459-4 , p. 28 .
  9. ^ Office for Ecological Research and Planning GEYER & DOLEK
  10. ^ Federal Environment Agency Austria
  11. ↑ Search for a threatened mountain witch orf.at, July 26, 2018, accessed July 26, 2018.

Web links

Commons : Berghexe  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files