Little monarch
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Little monarch ( Danaus chrysippus ), ♂ |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Danaus chrysippus | ||||||||||||
| Linnaeus , 1758 |
The Little Monarch ( Danaus chrysippus ), also known as the African Monarch or Common Tiger , is a species of butterfly from the noble butterfly family . It occurs in the Mediterranean region, in large parts of Africa, in South Asia and in Australia. It reaches a wingspan of up to approx. 8 cm and shows a sexual dimorphism .
In addition to the nominate form Danaus chrysippus chrysippus , a distinction is made between the subspecies Danaus chrysippus alcippus , Danaus chrysippus dorippus and Danaus chrysippus orientis . The classification of Danaus chrysippus cratippus and Danaus chrysippus petilia as subspecies is considered obsolete or controversial. The subspecies differ based on the wing drawing.
features
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The moths are characterized by a wing drawing made of an orange-brown tone and black and white. In the hind wings, depending on the geographical region, large parts of the brown are lighter than in the forewings, sometimes white. The drawings of the top and bottom of the wing largely correspond, with the undersides being somewhat paler. The females lack a black spot on the hind wings that is present in the males. The females are larger than the males, the latter having special scent scales on the hind wings to attract females. At the end of the abdomen, the males have pull-out, brush-like structures. The hull is black and white.
The animals inhabit different habitats with deserts and grasslands as well as the tropical regions of the distribution area and penetrate up to about 3000 m altitude.
ecology
In the larval stage, the little monarch appropriates inedible alkaloids by feeding on predators , which protects them from appropriately experienced predators in the imago stage . The butterfly is also protected to a limited extent against actual access by its tough consistency and its vapors, which are perceived as bad by predators. The butterfly's flight pattern openly signals to enemies that it is inedible. The species, which is dangerous with regard to the protective mechanism for predators , is imitated by mimicry by other, in this context unprotected, species, both in terms of appearance and behavior. Imitators include the females of the species Argyreus hyperbius and Hypolimnas misippus, which are also characterized by sexual dimorphism . Together with the species Danaus genutia , the Little Monarch shows a mutual (Müllerian) mimicry.
development
_caterpillar_on_a_Calotropis_(Milkweed)_species_in_Hyderabad,_AP_W_IMG_7970.jpg)
The female lays a light-colored, elongated egg, tapering towards the front, longitudinally furrowed from above on the underside of the leaf. In order to avoid feeding competition among the caterpillars , only one egg is deposited per leaf. Host plants include silk plants and mallow plants . The white-black-yellow patterned caterpillars have a pair of black, narrow appendages on the third, sixth and 12th segment, the front of which are movable and longer than the rear. The caterpillars stay on the underside of their leaves until pupation, where they protect themselves from poisonous plant secretions by gnawing only the lowest leaf layer around their body. They later eat their way through the leaf to the top. The mostly green, smooth, whitish pupa in unnatural surroundings hangs loosely under its leaf.
Subspecies
The nominate form Danaus chrysippus chrysippus is widespread from northeast Africa to Asia. In contrast, the other three subspecies are restricted to Africa: D. c. alcipus lives in western central Africa, D. c. dorippus in the Horn of Africa and D. c. orientis in South Africa. In the middle of the continent the four subspecies meet and cross each other. A new subspecies has emerged in this contact zone; it consists exclusively of females whose W chromosome is combined with chromosome 15 to form a new sex chromosome . This large, new W chromosome is associated with infection by an endosymbiont, namely Spiroplasma ixodetis . The bacterium is inherited from the mother and kills all sons. The survival of this female population requires mating by uninfected males from the area. A W chromosome is the element that determines females, as butterflies have a ZW / ZZ system .
gallery
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ David a. S. Smith, Gugs Lushai, John A. Allen: A classification of Danaus butterflies (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) based upon data from morphology and DNA . In: Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society . tape 144 , no. 2 , June 2005, p. 191–212 , doi : 10.1111 / j.1096-3642.2005.00169.x ( PDF ).
- ↑ a b c butterflycorner.net
- ↑ Grzimeks Tierleben, Kindler Verlag 1971, Volume 2 "Insects", pp. 367, 369
- ↑ D. a. S. Smith: Batesian Mimicry between Danaus chrysippus and Hypolimnas misippus (Lepidoptera) in Tanzania . In: Nature . tape 242 , no. 5393 , March 9, 1973, p. 129-131 , doi : 10.1038 / 242129a0 .
- ↑ Host plants of butterflies (Engl.)
- ↑ T. van der Heyden: Orbea variegata (L.) Haworth, 1812 (Apocynaceae, Asclepiadoideae) as a food plant for the larvae of Danaus chrysippus (Linnaeus, 1758) on the Canary Islands (Spain) (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae, Danainae). In: SHILAP Revista de lepidopterología . Volume 38, Number 149, March 2010, pp. 107-110. [1]
- ↑ Simon H Martin, Kumar Saurabh Singh, Ian J Gordon, Kennedy Saitoti Omufwoko, Steve Collins, Ian A Warren, Hannah Munby, Oskar Brattström, Walther Traut, Dino J Martins, David AS Smith, Chris D Jiggins, Chris Bass, Richard H ffrench-Constant: Whole-chromosome hitchhiking driven by a malekilling endosymbiont. In: PLoS Biol 18, 2, 2020: e3000610. (PDF)
- ↑ FM Jiggins, GD Hurst, Chris D Jiggins, JH von der Schulenburg, ME Majerus: The butterfly Danaus chrysippus is infected by a male-killing Spiroplasma bacterium. In: Parasitology 120, 2000: 439-446. https://doi.org/10 . 1017 / s0031182099005867