Brimstone butterfly
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Brimstone butterfly ( Gonepteryx rhamni ), ♂ |
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| Gonepteryx rhamni | ||||||||||||
| ( Linnaeus , 1758) |
The brimstone butterfly ( Gonepteryx rhamni ) is a butterfly (day butterfly ) from the family of the whiteflies (Pieridae). The specific epithet is derived from buckthorn ( Rhamnus ), a genus of plants whose leaves serve as food for the caterpillars . The lemon butterfly was the insect of the year 2002 in Germany .
features
The moths reach a wingspan of 50 to 55 millimeters. They have an intense lemon yellow (males) or pale greenish-white (females) colored fore and hind wings. At first glance, the females can be confused with the great cabbage white butterfly ( Pieris brassicae ), but they can be easily distinguished from one another based on their characteristic wing shape. All four wings of the lemon moth are clearly pointed at the tips. Both sexes each have an orange spot on their wing tops, on the undersides these are brownish in color. The wing veins are clearly visible and protrude strongly. At the base of the wings, on the upper side of the body, the head and the antennae they are dark purple in color.
The caterpillars are dull green in color, with the coloring being less pronounced on the sides. A light, deep, matt white longitudinal stripe runs over the legs on each side. This drawing, which follows the principle of counter-shading , serves as a camouflage for the caterpillar from enemies, e.g. B. the songbirds.
Similar species
- Mediterranean brimstone ( Gonepteryx cleopatra )
- Gonepteryx farinosa
- Great Cabbage White butterfly ( Pieris brassicae )
Occurrence
The animals are found in northwest Africa , almost all over Europe , in Turkey and Central Asia as far as Mongolia . In Europe they are not found in the far north of England and Scandinavia and on Crete. You can find them, depending on the temperature, up to an altitude of 2,800 meters. They live in both wet and dry areas, such as forests , shrubbery near forests, and on sunny and grassy or rocky slopes with barren shrub growth. Apparently they are no longer to be found frequently. However, conspicuous occasional mass occurrences, as they are known from some other European whites, were never observed by the brimstone butterfly. The depositing of single eggs instead of clutches (such as in the great cabbage white butterfly) and the not very common caterpillar forage plants may be reasons for the fact that the population of lemon moths remains inconspicuously constant. The brimstone butterfly is “a vagabond who can appear practically anywhere where there is sun and flowers”, it is “not a candidate for the Red List”.
Way of life
The lemon butterflies achieve a lifespan of 12 months and thus have the highest life expectancy of all Central European butterflies. The upper sides of the wings are almost never seen in live butterflies, as the animals immediately fold their wings when they are at rest. It warms up as a "side absorption sun".
The females usually lay their eggs singly or in pairs, less often in groups, on the opening buds of their forage plants. The caterpillars rest on the midrib of the upper side of the leaf and are perfectly camouflaged there. They eat the leaves from the edge inwards. Pupation takes place almost horizontally hanging from branches to form belt dolls, which, like all belt dolls , are attached to the cremaster with a fine belt thread in addition to the cremaster hooked into a small web cushion. The animals overwinter as the only Central European butterfly species without protection as moths freely in the vegetation. Either they sit on twigs or between dry leaves on the ground, more often in the stiff-leaved, evergreen bushes of holly . With the help of glycerine , sorbitol and proteins , they manage to lower the freezing point of body fluids so that they can withstand temperatures of up to minus 20 degrees without damage. They can be active for a short time on warm winter days, but usually stay in place throughout the winter, even if they are completely covered by snow. In early spring, the brimstone butterfly is not only active where its host plants grow. The eggs are laid in April. This completes the life cycle of the lemon moth.
The caterpillars feed on the foliage of shrubby buckthorn plants such as buckthorn ( Frangula alnus ) and Purgier buckthorn ( Rhamnus cathartica ), but also on other buckthorn species .
Flight and caterpillar times
After overwintering, the moths can be seen again in Central Europe from March onwards. The caterpillars live from May to June. The moths of the new generation appear in the temperate areas from the end of June. During the summer time, the heißesten moths undergo a longer summer diapause ( Übersommerung ) in hiding back. Then they are active again until they go to their wintering sites in late autumn.
- Life cycle
Lemon moth eggs on buckthorn ( Frangula alnus )
Young brimstone caterpillar on buckthorn
Lemon butterfly caterpillar after moulting in typical resting position in the middle of the leaf on buckthorn
Pre-doll spinning the belt thread
Doll
Newly hatched brimstone butterfly ♀
Hibernating brimstone ♂
pairing
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literature
- Hans-Josef Weidemann: Butterflies: observe, determine . Naturbuch-Verlag, Augsburg 1995, ISBN 3-89440-115-X .
- 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 .
Web links
- Lepiforum e. V. Photos and taxonomy
- www.schmetterling-raupe.de
- Moths and Butterflies of Europe and North Africa (English)
- Natural history information system
- Gonepteryx rhamni at Fauna Europaea
Individual evidence
- ^ Arnold Spuler: The butterflies of Europe . tape 1 . E. Schweitzerbartsche Verlagbuchhandlung, Stuttgart 1908, p. 11 .
- ↑ a b c d Heiko Bellmann : The new cosmos butterfly guide. Butterflies, caterpillars and forage plants. Franckh-Kosmos, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-440-09330-1 , pp. 132f.
- ↑ a b Tom Tolman, Richard Lewington: The butterflies of Europe and Northwest Africa . Franckh-Kosmos Verlags-GmbH & Co, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-440-07573-7 , p. 53 f .
- ↑ Günter Ebert, Erwin Rennwald (ed.): Tagfalter I (Ritterfalter (Papilionidae), Weißlinge (Pieridae), Edelfalter (Nymphalidae)). In: The butterflies of Baden-Württemberg. Volume 1, Ulmer Verlag, Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-8001-3451-9 , pp. 275f.
- ↑ Günter Ebert, Erwin Rennwald (ed.): Tagfalter I (Ritterfalter (Papilionidae), Weißlinge (Pieridae), Edelfalter (Nymphalidae)). In: The butterflies of Baden-Württemberg. Volume 1, Ulmer Verlag, Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-8001-3451-9 , pp. 275f.