Housemother

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Housemother
House mother (Noctua pronuba)

House mother ( Noctua pronuba )

Systematics
Family : Owl butterfly (Noctuidae)
Subfamily : Noctuinae
Tribe : Noctuini
Sub tribus : Noctuina
Genre : Noctua
Type : Housemother
Scientific name
Noctua pronuba
Linnaeus , 1758
newly hatched male and pupa
green caterpillar
brown caterpillar

The housemother ( Noctua pronuba ) is a butterfly from the owl butterfly family (Noctuidae). She often invades houses at night to rest in them during the day. That's why she got the name housemother.

features

The wingspan of the moth is 50 to 60 millimeters. The wing color of the forewings varies from light brown to yellow-green to dark brown and almost black. A great variation can also be observed in the contrast, from almost monochrome to light / dark speckled. The flaws can usually be seen; with a light ring flaw and a dark kidney flaw. On average, the females have slightly lighter wings than the males, which are usually a bit more colorful and clearly marked. At the end of the wavy line at the Kostal edge there is an elongated, sharply delimited, black spot, which in some specimens can, however, also be broken up into two to three smaller spots. The forewings are relatively narrow. The neck collar is generally lighter in color than the thorax . The hind wings are yellow with a black band. The black discal spot is missing in most forms.

According to Steiner & Ebert (1998) there are (at least in Baden-Württemberg) three phenotypes, each with different males and females. Phenotype I shows almost monochrome dark brown males and red-brown females, phenotype II results in yellow-brown males with intense dark brown markings and monochrome yellow-brown females. In phenotype III the females are almost monochrome gray, the males gray with strong dark brown markings.

Bergmann found that the forewing color was dependent on temperature and humidity during pupal development. Low temperatures (10 to 15 ° C) and dry conditions resulted in pale whitish-gray forewings with clear gray markings (transverse lines and bands) and a gray-colored body. Males and females were hardly colored differently. Low temperatures and humid conditions resulted in male butterflies with bluish gray fore wings with grayish-purple blurred markings. The females were more purple-gray and less contrasting. Pupae that developed at high temperatures (26 to 30 ° C) and in drought gave rise to male moths with gray-ocher-yellow forewings and clear markings. The females were light yellow-brown to brownish-red with little clear markings. High temperature and humidity resulted in grayish light red to grayish purple male moths with strong dark brown speckles and indistinct markings, the body was dusty dark brown. The female moths were dark brown to reddish brown with no markings except for the blemishes. Bergmann emphasizes that a small percentage of the dolls do not fit into this color and drawing scheme depending on temperature and humidity, but that hereditary factors must also be responsible.

The approximately spherical egg is slightly flattened towards the base. It measures 0.45 millimeters in height and 0.5 millimeters in diameter. It is reddish yellow in the lower half, and more grayish yellow in the upper half. The surface is smooth in the lower half, and weakly ribbed in the upper half towards the pole. 39 to 43, slightly raised longitudinal ribs extend from the micropyl region. They are crossed by very weak cross ribs.

The caterpillars reach a length of up to 50 millimeters. The younger larval stages are more greenish, the older caterpillars are more brownish. The back line is narrow and yellowish, and the side back lines are also yellowish in color. They have a black longitudinal bar on each abdominal segment.

The doll is reddish brown and has a short cremaster armed with two thorns.

Similar species

The housemother ( Noctua pronuba ) Linnaeus, 1758 and Noctua interposita (Hübner, 1790) have a black spot at the end of the wavy line at the costal edge, which is missing in the broad-winged bandy owl ( Noctua comes ) or is only weak, light to dark brown. N. comes , N. interposita and N. orbona have distinct discal spots on the hind wings ; these are absent in the vast majority of forms of N. pronuba .

Geographical distribution and habitat

The species is distributed throughout Europe including Iceland . The distribution limit extends to Central Fennoscandia in the north and North Africa in the south ( Canary Islands to Egypt ). The distribution area extends from the Middle East to Afghanistan , northwest India and Siberia . The species was introduced in North America . The first evidence comes from 1979 from Nova Scotia ( Canada ) and from 1984 from Newfoundland. Since then, it has spread rapidly there. The species has now been recorded in all Canadian provinces, and in the USA it has been safely recorded in Maine, Louisiana, Maryland and California. Evidence that has not yet been published in Ohio in Bugguide suggests that the species has already spread much further in the USA.

Way of life

The mainly nocturnal moths fly in Central Europe from June to October, some moths even in a generation into November. In North Africa, the moths fly in March. They fly to artificial light sources, visit flowers and also get the bait . Occasionally, however, they also fly during the day and can be observed when visiting flowers. They take a longer break in summer (around the end of July / beginning of August). A special feature distinguishes the house mother from other moths . It can fly off by vibrating quickly without warming up the wings. The moths often migrate over long distances. The sexual maturity of the moths is determined by the length of the day. Although the moths hatch at the end of June, the sex glands only mature when the daylight is shorter (less than 15 hours). Presumably, climatic factors also play a role, because in the mountains the ovaries of the females begin about a week later. Then mating and oviposition take place within three to four weeks. Individual females found in Central Europe in June with already mature ovaries are interpreted as immigrants from the Mediterranean region. The oviposition can take several months. A clutch can consist of several hundred eggs. A female lays a total of 2000 to 3000 eggs, females have been observed in breeding that lay up to over 4000 eggs. Usually the clutches are deposited at some height above the ground. The clutches are attached to branches, but also to artificial objects such as tension wires, but also in so-called ice mirrors . The caterpillars are generally found from September to May of the following year. After hatching, the caterpillars first consume the egg shell and then rappel off the clutch. They can easily be drifted by the wind while hanging on the rope. The caterpillars are still exclusively diurnal, the caterpillars in the second larval stage are predominantly diurnal. The caterpillars only become nocturnal from the third larval stage; during the day they hide on the ground. They feed on many different herbaceous and woody plants. Steiner and Ebert name:

The caterpillars also occasionally climb high on their food plants. Due to the long period of oviposition, caterpillars are found in completely different larval stages in late autumn (L1 to L6); these also overwinter in completely different larval stages. The caterpillars of a single clutch also develop at different speeds. Pupation also takes place correspondingly differently; Dolls were found from late April to June of the following year. In warm weather in late autumn, individual caterpillars can pupate in the same year and very rarely even individual moths can hatch in the same year. The caterpillars pupate in a cave in the earth.

Danger

The housemother is quite common and not at risk in Germany.

swell

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Fibiger (1993: 72/3)
  2. ↑ a b c Bergmann (1954: pp. 231–233)
  3. ↑ a b Dolinskaya & Geryak (2010: p. 20)
  4. ↑ a b c Forster & Wohlfahrt (1971: p. 34)
  5. ↑ Heiko Bellmann : The new Kosmos butterfly guide. Butterflies, caterpillars and forage plants. Franckh-Kosmos, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-440-09330-1 (description p. 278).
  6. ↑ a b c Axel Steiner in Ebert (1998: pp. 359–365)
  7. ^ Vernon Antoine Brou: A Gulf Coast Record of the European Cutworm, Noctua pronuba (L.). News of the Southern Lepidopterists' Society, 1997, p. 36 ( PDF ).
  8. ^ John W. Brown: The Invertebrate Fauna of Plummers Island, Maryland: Introduction and Background. Bulletin of the Biological Society of Washington, 2008, pp. 1–10 doi : 10.2988 / 0097-0298 (2008) 15 [1: TIFOPI] 2.0.CO; 2
  9. ^ Claudia R. Copley and Robert A. Cannings: Notes on the status of the Eurasian moths Noctua pronuba and Noctua comes (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Journal of the Entomological Society of British Columbia, 102: 83-84, 2005 ( PDF ).
  10. ↑ Bugguide.net
  11. ↑ Red lists at Science4you

literature

  • Arno Bergmann: The large butterflies of Central Germany. Volume 4/1: Owls. Distribution, forms and communities. Urania-Verlag, Jena 1954, DNB 450378373 .
  • IV Dolinskaya, Yu. A. Geryak: The Chorionic Sculpture of the Eggs of Some Noctuinae (Lepidoptera, Noctuidae) from Ukraine. Vestnik zoologii, 44 (5): 421-432, 2010, doi : 10.2478 / v10058-010-0028-4 .
  • Michael Fibiger: Noctuidae Europaeae, Volume 2 Noctuinae II. Entomological Press, Sorø, 1993, ISBN 87-89430-02-6 .
  • Walter Forster , Theodor A. Wohlfahrt : The butterflies of Central Europe. Volume 4: Owls. (Noctuidae). Franckh'sche Verlagshandlung, Stuttgart 1971, ISBN 3-440-03752-5 .
  • Axel Steiner and Günter Ebert: The butterflies of Baden-Württemberg Volume 7, Nachtfalter V (Owls (Noctuidae) 3rd part), Ulmer Verlag Stuttgart 1998. ISBN 3-8001-3500-0 .

Web links

Commons : Housemother  - album with pictures, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: Housemother  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations