Danaus gilippus
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Danaus gilippus |
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| ( Bates , 1863) |
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Danaus gilippus is a butterfly from the family of Nymphalidae (Nymphalidae) and very closely with the African monarch ( Danaus chrysippus ) related. It is widespread and common in America.
features
Imago
Danaus gilippus has a fore wing length of 38 to 46 millimeters. The basic color of the wings is reddish brown to brown. The veins with the edges are dark brown to black. It differs from Danaus eresimus by a series of postmedial white dots on the forewing. On the hind wing underside, the black veins are often widened with white.
Caterpillar
The caterpillar is bluish-white on the back and sides and turns reddish brown towards the legs. Reddish black horizontal stripes run across the body, separated by yellow bands or yellow dots. The head capsule is whitish and has a black triangle in the middle. In the second caterpillar stage, the fleshy appendages typical of the Danaini tribes become visible. One pair is on the thorax (segment 2) and two pairs are on the abdomen (segments 5 and 11).
Doll
The pupa is white-green to green, rarely pale pink, and has several golden dots and a black band with golden edges over the abdomen. It has the shape of the pupa of Danaus plexippus , but is a little slimmer.
mimicry
In areas where the monarch butterfly is rarely found, in the southwest and southeast of the USA , Danaus gilipus serves as a mimicry model for Limenitis archippus instead of the monarch butterfly . From eastern Texas to Florida, the red-brown subspecies L. archippus floridensis mimics D. gilippus berenice, and from western Texas to Arizona the brown subspecies L. archippus obsoleta mimics D. gilipus strigosus .
Occurrence
Danaus gilippus is distributed from the southern USA, the Greater Antilles including the Bahamas and in South America , including the Galapagos Islands , to Uruguay , Paraguay and as far as southern Argentina . The species is absent in northern Brazil . The monarch butterfly is largely replaced by Danaus gilippus berenice in the south-east of the USA and by Danaus gilippus strigosus in the south-west . The animals live in sparse forests and fields and are also found in deserts in the southern United States.
Way of life
The male moths fly around all day looking for females. In courtship and mating, the tufts of hair typical of the species and their fragrances play an important role. To do this, the tufts of hair at the end of the abdomen must first touch the glands in the pockets on the hind wings in order to absorb the pheromone , which contains the ketone danaidone (2,3-dihydro-7-methyl-1 H -pyrrolizin-1-one) . The pheromone later adheres to the antennae of the female through a diol . Both substances are necessary for the female to respond to the male's advertising. During commercial flight, the male pursues the female and overtakes her. It brings its everted tufts of hair with the fragrance close to the odor-sensitive antennae of the female. A female ready to mate lands and closes her wings, otherwise she opens her wings or tries to escape. When the female sits down, the male flies around her with tufts of hair turned up. When the female flaps her wings, the male continues courtship and tries to get her to fly to continue courtship flight. To mate, the male lands next to the female and palpates it during mating and flies away with it. The females can mate up to 15 times, which is a record among butterflies.
The pheromone is obtained from pyrrolizidine alkaloids , which animals ingest from the sap of plants. The males can often be seen suckling injured or decaying plants.
With the antennae, the females can perceive not only the danaidon but also the smell of flower nectar. With all legs they can recognize suitable egg-laying plants. The pale green eggs are laid individually on the leaves, stems and flowers of the host plants.
The moths overwinter in the south of their range.
development
The caterpillars feed on leaves, flowers and stems of the food plants. They do not form nests and live individually. They can absorb cardiac glycosides such as calactin and calotropin through their food plants , which make them and the later pupae and moths inedible for predators. The uptake is worse than with the monarch butterfly and the animals are on average less poisonous.
Food of the caterpillars
The food plants of the caterpillars all belong to the subfamily of the silk plant family :
- Genus Asclepias : Indian milkweed ( A. curassavica ), A. amplexicaulis , A. albicans , A. erosa , A. fascicularis , A. mexicana , A. humistrata , A. nivea , A. asperula , A. subulata , bulbous milkweed ( A. tuberosa ssp. Rolfsii )
- Stacks
- Genus Funastrum : F. hirtellum , F. clausum (in Jamaica), F. cynanchoides
- Genus Matelea : M. hirsuta , M. carolinensis ,
- Genus Cynanchum : C. palustre , C. angustifolium
Calotropis procera is also accepted in Jamaica .
Flight times
The moths fly year round from southern Texas and Florida. They fly in southern California and Nevada from April to November. In the spring, Danaus gilippus migrates north from northern Florida and migrates back south from August through October. Larger migrations with colonies of dormant moths have been observed as far as Colorado .
Systematics
The classification of Danaus gilippus within the genus has not been conclusively clarified. It is so genetically related to the African monarch ( Danaus chrysippus ) that both are either considered sister species or D. gilippus is considered a subspecies of D. chrysippus . The butterflies of both “species” cannot be clearly assigned due to their variable appearance.
swell
- Scott, James A .: The butterflies of North America . Stanford University Press, Stanford, California 1986, ISBN 0-8047-1205-0 , pp. 231 f . (632 pages).
- Philip J. De Vries: The butterflies of Costa Rica and their natural history . Princeton University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-691-08420-3 , pp. 212 (327 pages).
- Richard Irwin Vane-Wright & PR Ackery (Eds.): Milkweed Butterflies. Their Cladistics and Biology . Cornell University Press, Ithaca and London 1984, ISBN 978-0-8014-1688-0 , pp. 208 f . (425 pages).
