Big frost wrench
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Great frost wrench ( Erannis defoliaria ), ♂ |
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| Erannis defoliaria | ||||||||||||
| ( Clerck , 1759) |
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The great frost spanner ( Erannis defoliaria ) is a species from the spanner family . Similar to the small frost wrench or the gypsy moth, it belongs to the forest pests with a pronounced sexual dimorphism .
features
The males of the Great Frostworm have a wingspan of 46 millimeters. The light ocher-yellow wings are delicate and thinly scaled and have a black center and fine speckles. On the forewings, the middle field is broadly lined with rust-brown. However, there are numerous and considerable deviations from this color pattern in this type of butterfly. Even specimens with single-colored forewings have been observed.
The female of the Great Frost Moth, on the other hand, is wingless, yellow and black piebald. Wings are only rudimentary. The body length of the female is about 14 millimeters.
The caterpillars appear in different colors. They are colored red-brown, black-brown or yellow-brown on the back and show wide yellow side stripes, which are bordered in black towards the top. Sometimes there are several thin black secondary ridge lines. The pupae are shiny red-brown. There is a forked tip on the cremaster .
- Color variants of the caterpillar of the Great Frost Spanners
Way of life
The moths usually hatch from their pupae from the end of September after the first frosty nights, hence the name. However, frost is not a prerequisite for hatching. The males are active at night and at dawn. During the day, the male moths sit on fallen leaves or on trunks.
On warm days in October the female crawls up the tree trunks on six long legs to lay her eggs in the buds. These eggs are pale yellow at first and then gradually turn pink to red-orange. In the middle of April of the following year, the brown-red, bellied-face sulfur-yellow, red-brown dashed caterpillars hatch. These destroy the fruit buds and the leaves from April to June. The preferred feeding trees for the caterpillars are oak , beech , linden , elm , birch and hornbeam . The caterpillars can sink to the ground if a spider thread is disturbed. They emit this thread from the spinneret. If you feel safe again, climb the same thread back up to the leaf. They gather the thread with their breastbones and eat it. The caterpillars pupate in June, in a loose web on the ground.
Distribution area
The Great Frost Spanner is at home in Northern and Central Europe; in the south its distribution area extends to northern Italy, in the east from the Caucasus to the Baltic States. The moth is very common, you can find it in deciduous forests, orchards, parks and bushes.
swell
literature
- Günter Ebert (Hrsg.): The Butterflies of Baden-Württemberg Volume 8, Nachtfalter VI (Spanner (Geometridae) 1st part), Ulmer Verlag, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-8001-3497-7
- Manfred Koch , Wolfgang Heinicke, Bernd Müller: We determine butterflies. Volume 4: Spanner. 2nd, improved and enlarged edition. Neumann, Leipzig / Radebeul 1976, DNB 780451570 .
- David J. Carter, Brian Hargreaves: Caterpillars and Butterflies of Europe and their Forage Plants. Blackwell Wissenschaftsverlag 1987, ISBN 3-8263-8139-4
- Bernard Skinner: Color Identification Guide to Moths of the British Isles , Penguin UK 1999, ISBN 0-670-87978-9
- Axel Hausmann, Michael A. Miller: Atlas of the caterpillars of European and Asia Minor butterflies, photographed by Burkhard Nippe , Verlag Dr. Friedrich Pfeil, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-931516-79-2
- Heiko Bellmann: Steinbach's nature guide. Butterflies , Ulmer, Stuttgart (Hohenheim), 2010, ISBN 978-3-8001-4653-6
Web links
- www.lepiforum.de - Taxonomy and photos
- www.schmetterling-raupe.de
- www.insektenbox.de
- Erannis defoliaria at Fauna Europaea
- Moths and Butterflies of Europe and North Africa (English)
- Ian Kimber: Guide to the moths of Great Britain adn Ireland (English)