Deceptive moths
| Deceptive moths | ||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||
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| Scientific name of the superfamily | ||||||||||
| Eriocranioidea | ||||||||||
| Rebel , 1901 | ||||||||||
| Scientific name of the family | ||||||||||
| Eriocraniidae | ||||||||||
| Rebel , 1901 |
The flying moths (Eriocraniidae) are a family of butterflies (Lepidoptera). They occur with only 26 species in six genera in the temperate latitudes of the Holarctic .
features
The moths reach a wingspan of 9 to 15 millimeters. They have narrow fore wings that are 2.6 to 3.2 times longer than they are wide. They are either completely or predominantly colored metallic, or have shiny metallic patterns. The basic color is usually violet-bronze, golden or bronze-golden. The hind wings are elliptical to pointed and are roughly the same width as the forewings. The thread-like antennae are short and reach about 40 to 60% of the forewing length. In addition to the compound eyes, they also have point eyes ( ocelli ). Their five-membered maxillary palps are very good, their three- or four-membered labial palps are well developed. Their short proboscis is also fully developed. Your mandibles should also be developed and functional, but some authors (Meyrick) doubt this. Some species that are the least phylogenetically developed are likely to have mandibles, but they are functionless. All six legs of the moth are fully developed and suitable for walking. There are four spurs on the hind tibia, one on the middle tibia, and no spurs on the anterior tibia.
The front wings have 11 to 15 wing veins with one to three anal veins . However, since the anal cores are difficult to determine, the various authors' opinions also diverge here. The hind wings have 11 to 14 wing veins with probably two anal veins (1b and 1c).
Way of life
The moths are diurnal, but some species sometimes fly at night. They do not visit flowers, but instead suck plant sap from injured buds.
The larvae have severely stunted legs because they are not needed for mining . They feed almost exclusively on beech-like plants and trees (Fagales). Only a few species also live on Salicales or the willow family belonging to them and on rose-like (Rosales). The species from Europe and Asia develop mainly in the leaves of birch and hazel , those from North America in beeches .
The females have a razor-sharp ovipositor for laying their eggs , with which they can cut open leaves and lay their eggs in them. The freshly hatched larvae first create a gang mine, which in the other three larval stages is devoured to a mine. They eat the entire inside of the leaves, leaving only the epidermis . As a result, the mine is transparent and you can see the droppings arranged like a string of pearls inside the mine. After about four to six weeks, the animals are fully grown and pupate. To do this, they let themselves fall and spin a cocoon in the ground. To hatch, the pupa leaves the pupa shell and crawls to the surface. The moths hatch very early in spring, because the caterpillars feed on the young leaf shoots of their forage plants early on.
The animals of the species Eriocrania sparrmannella can rarely cause damage to birch trees through mass reproduction.
Systematics
The family of the deer moths occur in Europe with the nine species listed below, all of which are native to Central Europe.
- Dyseriocrania subpurpurella ( Haworth , 1828)
- Eriocrania alpinella Burmann , 1958
- Eriocrania cicatricella ( Zetterstedt , 1839)
- Eriocrania salopiella ( Stainton , 1854)
- Eriocrania sangii ( Wood , 1891)
- Eriocrania semipurpurella ( Stephens , 1835)
- Eriocrania sparrmannella ( Bosc , 1791)
- Eriocrania unimaculella ( Zetterstedt , 1839)
- Paracrania chrysolepidella ( Zeller , 1851)
swell
Individual evidence
- ↑ Eriocraniidae. Fauna Europaea, accessed December 29, 2006 .
- ↑ Eriocraniidae. Lepiforum eV, accessed on December 29, 2006 .
