Eriocrania unimaculella
| Eriocrania unimaculella | ||||||||||||
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Eriocrania unimaculella |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Eriocrania unimaculella | ||||||||||||
| ( Zetterstedt , 1839) |
Eriocrania unimaculella is a European small butterfly from the family of the common moth . The caterpillar mines in leaves of birch trees.
features
butterfly
The moths reach a wingspan of 9 to 12 millimeters. The forewings are metallic bronze-colored scales with sprinkled light gold-colored scales and are irregularly overflowing purple. On the rear edge behind the middle of the wing, they have a white, narrow, slightly curved, transverse spot that reaches about half the width of the wing. The hind wings are predominantly gray, towards the rear end with a purple sheen. The scales of the hind wings are broadly oval and rounded. The thorax , abdomen and antennae are colored brown. The protruding scaling of the head is also brown-gray in the male and yellowish in color in the female.
In the fore wing the vein R (radius) behind the cell R-Cu is divided into five branches up to the edge (sub-genus Heringocrania , in Eriocrania s. Str. Branch R3 is missing, so only four radial branches). The hind wing has only four radial branches, the R2 vein is missing here (in contrast to Eriocrania (Dyseriocrania) subpurpurella ).
Caterpillar
The caterpillar is white in color with a brown head capsule, which is usually somewhat retracted into the semitransparent prothorax . The posterior processes of the head capsule shine through and appear as indistinct, dark spots. On each side of the first abdominal segment there is a difficult to see appendix.
Way of life
The caterpillar is miner in birch leaves . The females lay their eggs in the buds that break open. The mine begins at the edge of the leaf and expands into a space mine. Long tracks of manure can be seen in the backlight in the mine. The caterpillar can usually be found with fresh leaves in April to May, in higher altitudes until the beginning of June. After the feeding time, the caterpillar leaves the mine and falls to the ground. It spins a cocoon in the upper soil layers, in which it pupates in the following midsummer. The pupae overwinter. The flight time of the moths extends from March to April.
The species is widespread and common, but usually economically insignificant. In Iceland it has occasionally caused premature leaf fall on mountain birches . In spring, the related Eriocrania sangii and Eriocrania semipurpurella appear in the same habitat at the same time, often in association with it .
The species is parasitized by parasitic wasps of the genus Tersilochus ( Ichneumonidae , Tersilochinae). The caterpillars are covered with eggs of the parasitoid while they are still in the mines . The mature larvae spin a cocoon within the host cocoon, the adults can be found from September, they remain in the cocoon until spring. Parasitization rates are generally low (less than 5 percent).
distribution
Eriocrania unimaculella lives in Central and Northern Europe, including Great Britain , Ireland and Iceland . It is missing in most of the Mediterranean, but comes in Romania before
Phylogeny, Taxonomy and Systematics
Different systems are in use for the Palearctic Eriocraniidae, after examining the skeletal muscles, all species can be combined in the genus Eriocrania . According to another opinion, this genus should be split up. When analyzed using the 18S rDNA, it grouped with Eriocrania .
Zetterstedt originally described the species as Adela unimaculella . A widely used synonym is Heringocrania unimaculella , another Mnemonica unimaculella .
swell
- GS Medvedev: Keys to the Insects of the European Part of the USSR .: Lepidoptera. IV, 1, Part 1. Translated by BRSharma. Oxonian Press, New Delhi 1987.
- J. Heath (1957): The British Eriocraniidae and Micropterygidae. Proceedings and transactions of the South London Entomological and Natural History Society 1957: 115-125. on-line
- Thorsten Jordan (1998): tersilochus curvator and Tersilochus sp.n. (Ichneumonidae, Tersilochinae), new parasitoids of the birch-mining dragon moths (Lepidoptera, Eriocraniidae). Bonn Zoological Contributions Volume 47 (3-4): 411-419.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Heringocrania unimaculella at Bladmineerders van Europa ( Memento of the original from March 10, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ British leafminers
- ^ The leaf and stem mines of British flies and other insects
- ^ Online new edition of the "Biology of the Small Butterflies" by Karl Traugott Schütze (1931) online
- ↑ Gudmundur Halldórsson, Bjarni D. Sigurdsson, Brynja Hrafnkelsdóttir, Edda S. Oddsdóttir, Ólafur Eggertsson, Erling Ólafsson (2013): New arthropod herbivores on trees and shrubs in Iceland and changes in pest dynamics: A review. Icelandic Agricultural Sciences 26: 69-84.
- ↑ László Rákosy, Marin Goia, Zoltan Kovacs Catalogul Lepidopterelor României / directory of butterflies Romania. Societatea Lepipderologica Romana Cluj-Napoca 2003.
- ↑ J. Birket-Smith & NP Kristensen (1974): The skeleto-muscular anatomy of the genital segments of male Eriocrania (Insecta, Lepidoptera). Journal of Animal Morphology 6 (2): 157-174.
- ^ Donald R. Davis (1978): A Revision of the North American Moths of the Superfamily Eriocranioidea with the Proposal of a New Family, Acanthopteroctetidae (Lepidoptera). Smithsonian contributions to zoology Number 251: 1-131.
- ^ Brian M. Wiegmann, Jerome C. Regier, Charles Mitter (2002): Combined molecular and morphological evidence on the phylogeny of the earliest lepidopteran lineages. Zoologica Scripta 31 (1): 67-81. doi : 10.1046 / j.0300-3256.2001.00091.x
