Iron-colored velvet butterfly
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Iron- colored velvet butterfly ( Hipparchia statilinus ) |
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| Hipparchia statilinus | ||||||||||||
| ( Hufnagel , 1766) |
The iron-colored velvet butterfly or the small rust bandage ( Hipparchia statilinus ) is a butterfly from the eye butterfly family .
features
The length of the forewings is about 22 to 28 millimeters. The color and size of the butterfly are quite variable. The wings of the nominate form Hipparchia statilinus spp. statilinus are almost monochrome dark brown on their upper side. Near the outer edge of the forewing there are two black eye-spots, between these two smaller white ones. The subspecies onosandrus Fruhstorfer is larger and has large white spots in the eye spots. The underside of the wing is more marbled with a light gray middle and dark gray submarginal band. In some areas (for example central Italy) the underside of the hind wings is almost monochrome dark brown.
♂
♂ △
♀
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The clay-yellow, velvety, finely haired caterpillar has five dark vertical stripes of equal width, a brownish head and red stigmas.
The brown pupa has long wing sheaths.
Similar species
Hipparchia fatua , which is found from Macedonia to the Middle East, is larger: the length of the fore wings is around 30 to 34 millimeters. There is an arched line in front of the edge of the hind wings. The underside is scaly brown and finely dashed.
Way of life and distribution
The iron-colored velvet butterfly flies in Central Europe from July to September, the females appear around 14 days after the males. The moth prefers light forests with sandy soil and dry forest edges. They fly at the edge and in clearings of coniferous trees, where they prefer to sit in the middle of the path. In the small pine trees that crown the sunlit hills of the Riviera, the butterflies can sometimes be seen with astonishing frequency in August.
The caterpillar lives on various grasses, such as real sheep fescue ( Festuca ovina ), annual bluegrass ( Poa annua ) and oatweed ( Aira ). It lives from July, hibernates and pupates in the following year between May and July.
At the beginning of the 20th century it was not uncommon in Central Europe, today its distribution is patchy and in places the species is extinct. In Germany only in places in East Germany. The overall distribution ranges from North Africa over the Iberian Peninsula, continental Western and Central Europe to the Baltic Sea, through southern Europe with Sicily to southern Russia and the Middle East.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Forster & Wohlfahrt, page 39f
- ↑ a b Joachim and Hiriko Haupt, page 290
- ↑ Seitz, page 129
- ↑ Ebert, page 26f
literature
- Joachim Haupt, Hiriko Haupt: Insects and arachnids on the Mediterranean. Franckh-Kosmos, Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-440-06030-6 .
- Butterfly I (knight butterfly (Papilionidae), whitefly (Pieridae), noble butterfly (Nymphalidae)) . In: Günter Ebert, Erwin Rennwald (eds.): The butterflies of Baden-Württemberg . tape 1 . Ulmer Verlag, Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-8001-3451-9 .
- Walter Forster , Theodor A. Wohlfahrt : The butterflies of Central Europe. Volume 2: Butterflies. (Rhopalocera and Hesperiidae). Franckh'sche Verlagshandlung, Stuttgart 1955, DNB 456642188 .
- Adalbert Seitz: The large butterflies of the palaearctic fauna area, the palaearctic butterflies. Alfred Kernen publishing house, Stuttgart 1909.
Web links
- Lepiforum e. V. Taxonomy and Photos
- Hipparchia (Neohipparchia) statilinus at Fauna Europaea
- Hipparchia statilinus inthe IUCN 2013 Red List of Threatened Species . Posted by: Tennent, WJ, 2008. Retrieved March 3, 2014.