Dark blue ant bluebird

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Dark blue ant bluebird
Dark blue antblue (Phengaris nausithous)

Dark blue antblue
( Phengaris nausithous )

Systematics
Class : Insects (Insecta)
Order : Butterflies (Lepidoptera)
Family : Bluebirds (Lycaenidae)
Subfamily : Lycaeninae
Genre : Phengaris
Type : Dark blue ant bluebird
Scientific name
Phengaris nausithous
( Bergstrasse , 1779)

The dark blue butterfly ( Phengaris nausithous , syn. Maculinea nausithous and Glaucopsyche nausithous ) is a butterfly ( butterfly ) from the family of the bluebells (Lycaenidae). It is also known as black-blue blue or black-blue moor blue .

features

Only the males of Phengaris nausithous (also called Maculinea nausithous ) have black-blue colored upper wing surfaces
Mating - the undersides of the wings of both sexes are the same

The moths reach a wingspan of 28 to 33 millimeters. The upper sides of the wings are monochrome dark brown in the females, in the males they are scalyed dark blue with a wide, blackish-gray edge. In addition, black dots can be seen on the upper side of the forewing of the males. The undersides of the wings are gray-brown in both sexes with black dots arranged in an arc, which are light-edged. The animals also have such points on the underside of the hind wing between the postdiskal and discal regions .

The caterpillars are about 13 millimeters long. They initially show a dark red, later a light reddish to yellowish color. They imitate the color of the flowers on which they feed ( mimicry ).

Similar species

Synonyms

  • Glaucopsyche nausithous
  • Maculinea nausithous
  • Lycaena arcas

Occurrence

The animals occur between Central Europe and the Urals to the Altai each up to 52 ° north latitude and south to the Caucasus and Turkey . There are also island deposits in the north of the Iberian Peninsula and in western France. You can find them in Spain at an altitude of 700 to 1,600 meters. They can be found in southern and central Germany, but only more frequently in the foothills of the Alps , otherwise they have become rare almost everywhere. They live in typical Wiesenknopf locations, sometimes a damp ditch is sufficient , in which the flowers can stay until the caterpillars have developed. Overall, they are tied to wet meadows , but within which they can also colonize drier peripheral areas.

Way of life

The adults like to sit on the flowers of the caterpillar forage plants that they suckle.

Flight and caterpillar times

The moths fly in one generation from mid-June to mid-August.

Food of the caterpillars

In the early stages of development, the caterpillars feed exclusively on the flower heads of the great meadow button ( Sanguisorba officinalis ). In late summer they are carried by red garden ants into their nests, where they overwinter and live predatory on ants' brood.

development

Female laying eggs on the inflorescence of the Great Wiesenknopf

The females lay their eggs one by one on the not yet opened buds of the inflorescence of a large meadow button. The caterpillars eat the flower heads of the forage plants from the inside, and also on open flowers and the ovules. After a while they let themselves go and wait. They are carried into their burrows by their host ants - knot ants of the genus Myrmica (primarily Myrmica rubra , next to Myrmica scabrinodis and Myrmica ruginodis ). There they eat ant larvae and in return leave the ants with a sugary secretion. The caterpillars are able to imitate the ants' nest odor. Once housed in the ant nest, they are cared for by the ants as their own breed, even though they are until pupation predatory feed on their eggs and larvae.

The caterpillars of the dark blue-buttoned ant overwinter in the ant burrow and pupate there in spring. After hatching from the pupa, however, the butterfly has to leave the ant nest quickly, because now the camouflage no longer works and the butterfly itself is now regarded as prey.

Parasitoids

The caterpillars can still be parasitized by the parasitic wasp Neotype melanocephalus in the flower heads of the Great Wiesenknopf .

Hazard and protection

Since the species is endangered throughout Europe and can be viewed as a key species, it is registered as an FFH species. Protective measures are a single mowing from the beginning of September, the avoidance of heavy machinery and eutrophication and land security. The species seems to be susceptible to polder flooding , which is probably due to the endangerment of the host ants on which the moths depend.

  • Red list FRG: V (pre-warning list)
  • Red list of Austria: VU = 3 (endangered)
  • IUCN : near threatend

The Dark Burnet-Large Blues is like the bright burnet Large Blues- in Annexes II and IV of the Habitats Directive listed and is therefore strictly protected at European level. According to Article 3, Paragraph 1 of this guideline, the member states must designate protected areas for the Natura 2000 network for habitats of this type and ensure the continued existence or, if necessary, the restoration of a favorable conservation status.

As in the Rhein-Sieg district, special protection projects are sometimes carried out. In the Rhein-Sieg district, a BUND protection project for the light blue-colored button and the blue blue button is running at the same time and a separate Maculinea foundation has been established.

swell

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Heiko Bellmann : The new Kosmos butterfly guide, butterflies, caterpillars and forage plants . Franckh-Kosmos, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-440-09330-1 , p. 150 .
  2. ↑ a b Tom Tolman, Richard Lewington: The butterflies of Europe and Northwest Africa . Franckh-Kosmos, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-440-07573-7 , p. 92 .
  3. ^ List of host ant species for blue ant species
  4. ↑ Manfred Alban Pfeifer: Endangerment and ecology of the Wiesenknopf blue ant species Phengaris (Maculinea) nausithous and P. (M.) teleius (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae) in the break between Erpolzheim (Bad Dürkheim district) and Eyersheimermühle (Rhein-Pfalz-Kreis). In: Mainz natural science archive. Volume 50, Mainz 2013, pp. 371-382. PDF
  5. ↑ Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (Ed.): Red List of Endangered Animals, Plants and Fungi in Germany . tape 3 : Invertebrates (Part 1). Landwirtschaftsverlag, Bonn-Bad Godesberg 2011, ISBN 978-3-7843-5231-2 .
  6. ^ Federal Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management (Ed.): Red Lists of Endangered Animals Austria. Checklists, risk analyzes, need for action. Part 1: Mammals, birds, grasshoppers, water beetles, netflies, beaked flies, Tagfalter Böhlau Verlag, Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-205-77345-4
  7. ↑ Phengaris nausithous in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 1996. Posted by: World Conservation Monitoring Center, 1996. Accessed on 27/03/2017.
  8. ↑ Brigitte Schmalter: Wiesenknopf blue ant in the Rhein-Sieg district of nature in NRW 4/2014, pp. 37–42.

literature

  • Hans-Josef Weidemann: Butterflies: observe, determine . Naturbuch-Verlag, Augsburg 1995, ISBN 3-89440-115-X .
  • Butterflies. 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 .
  • Zdenék Fric, Niklas Wahlberg, Pavel Pech and Jan Zrzavý: Phylogeny and classification of the Phengaris – Maculinea clade (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae): total evidence and phylogenetic species concepts. Systematic Entomology, 32: 558-567, Oxford 2007 doi : 10.1111 / j.1365-3113.2007.00387.x
  • Sabine Geissler-Strobel: Landscape planning -oriented studies on ecology, distribution, endangerment and protection of the Wiesenknopf-Ant-Bläulinge Glaucopsyche (Maculinea) nausithous and Glaucopsyche (Maculinea) teleius , Eitschberger, Marktleuthen 1999 (Neue entomologische Nachrichten 44), 105 S.: Ill. , graph. Darst.

Web links

Commons : Dunkler Wiesenknopf-Antbläuling  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files