Big sack carrier
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Large sack carrier ( Canephora hirsuta ), on the right a caterpillar sack with a hatched male |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Canephora hirsuta | ||||||||||||
| ( Poda , 1761) |
The large sack carrier ( Canephora hirsuta , syn .: Canephora unicolor , also known as the Mohrenkopf ) is a butterfly from the family of the real sack carrier (Psychidae).
features
Construction of the Imago
The structure of the adult animals is characterized by a clear sexual dimorphism . The males are completely black and have a shiny metallic surface, their appearance is dark and inconspicuous. They reach a span of 20 to 25 millimeters. Their wings and feathered antennae are well defined. There are fine, white-gray hairs on the caput (head part), the back of the thorax and at the base of the legs. The brownish colored females have a cylindrical body and are 13 to 20 millimeters long. They have neither developed antennae nor wings , their eyes are stunted and their legs are reduced to stumps.
Construction of the caterpillar
The caterpillars are about 16 millimeters long. They have a yellowish body, the head and thorax are patterned brown. You spin yourself into a sack-like web sack. Its inner layer is round or oval in cross-section and consists of silk, on the outside of which the caterpillar attaches parts of plant stems, pieces of leaves or tree needles, so that the silk bag is covered by a quiver of organic substances. The caterpillar bags are robustly built and have a very coarse and disheveled appearance. The sack is usually longer than 20 millimeters, the organic foreign materials are spun lengthways, and the silk sack usually protrudes below. The structure is attached to grass stalks. Male caterpillars spin significantly larger plant parts together, in particular long pieces protrude from the front end at an angle. At the rear end, part of the web is not covered by plant material. The females, on the other hand, build their homes from finer plant parts and also cover the rear end.
The upward end of the sac is the front end from which the caterpillar can extend its head and chest segment and move with its thoracic legs. This is mainly done to seek out a new food plant. The abdomen remains in the sack, the caterpillar holds onto it with its belly legs . The feces are discharged from the rear end of the sack, after pupation the finished male butterfly hatches from this side. To do this, the caterpillar turns around in the sack before it begins to pupate. The female remains in the sac and is fertilized by the rear end during mating.
Occurrence
The caterpillars live on sunny meadows or in sparse forests, especially on sandy soils. Your sack is attached to grass stalks. Both the female imago , which remains in the caterpillar sack all their life, and the male imago reside in the same habitat. They are widespread and often found in Central Europe , but in some places their populations are falling sharply.
Way of life
Only the male adult butterfly leaves the caterpillar sac and seeks out the female to mate with him. The male is attracted by sex pheromones . Due to synchronous hatching times, mating succeeds in spite of the short lifetimes that are characteristic of all adults of the real sack-bearers , as they cannot take in food because of their stunted mouthparts.
Flight and caterpillar times
The adults fly in one generation from late May to mid-July. The caterpillars can be found from August and after wintering until May.
Food of the caterpillars
The caterpillars feed on polyphag of many woody or herbaceous plants, such as from Eingriffeligem Hawthorn ( Crataegus monogyna ), blackberries ( Rubus fruticosus ), Scotch broom ( Cytisus scoparius ), meadow sage ( Salvia pratensis ) and plantain ( Plantago lanceolata ).
development
During the entire caterpillar stage, the caterpillar remains in its enclosure and does not leave it to eat. The development takes at least two years, so overwintering takes place as a caterpillar. Pupation also takes place in the caterpillar sac, so that only the adult male butterfly leaves its breeding and maturing site. The male sacs are found numerous either on blades of grass or on walls. The female sacs are difficult to recognize in the bushes at a height of one to two meters.
swell
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Markku Savela: Lepidoptera and some other life forms Canephora hirsuta
- ↑ a b c Jozef Ponec: Butterflies of our home . Verlag Obzor, Bratislava (German translation of the original Slovak edition from 1982) ISBN 3-8112-0380-0
- ↑ a b c d e Heiko Bellmann : The new Kosmos butterfly guide, butterflies, caterpillars and forage plants . Franckh-Kosmos, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-440-09330-1 , p. 38 .
- ↑ a b c W. Sauter and P. Hättenschwiler: To the system of the palaearctic Psychidae. ( Memento of the original from December 15, 2013 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. (PDF; 208 kB) Part 3: Identification key for the sacks , Nota lepid. 27 (1): 59-69
- ↑ Manfred Koch : We identify butterflies. Volume 2: Bears, Spinners, Swarmers and Drills in Germany. 2nd, expanded edition. Neumann, Radebeul / Berlin 1964, DNB 452481929 , p. 126f.
Web links
- Lepiforum eV: Taxonomy and Photos
- Canephora hirsuta at Fauna Europaea