Zebra butterfly
| Zebra butterfly | ||||||||||||
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Zebra butterfly ( Heliconius charithonia ) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Heliconius charithonia | ||||||||||||
| ( Linnaeus , 1767) |
The zebra butterfly ( Heliconius charithonia ) is a butterfly (day butterfly ) from the genus Heliconius within the noble butterfly family (Nymphalidae).
description
The moths reach a wingspan of 70 to 100 millimeters. Their wings are relatively long and narrow. Their coloring is the same on both sides. The basic color is black, on the front wings there are three white to lemon yellow lines from the front edge to the outer edge. Another line of this kind runs on the rear wings, plus a chain of white to lemon yellow dots, which first runs along the outer edge from the wing tip and then makes an arc that ends about halfway down the inner edge of the wing. Another, much weaker row of dots runs along the outer edge to the inner edge without the two rows meeting. The undersides of the wings are almost the same color, but you can see several inconspicuous red spots.
The caterpillars are white and have long, black spines all over their bodies.
Occurrence
The animals occur in all of South America and in North America north to Mexico , in the south Texas and in Florida . They are also rarely found in New Mexico , Nebraska and South Carolina . They live primarily in tropical rainforests and other humid forests, but can also be found in open areas.
Way of life
Males fly around in search of females. They are even attracted to female dolls . The animals stay with these until the female has hatched in order to be able to mate. At night, zebra butterflies always gather in a certain place to sleep, preferably over ponds, as they like the higher humidity there. More than a hundred moths can spend the night at such overnight spots, but there are usually 25 to 30 animals. The risk of being eaten by such a large crowd is very low. The moths always gather in the same place. Together they give off a strong, not too appetizing smell that scares off predators. When it rains, the moths hang upside down under leaves to avoid getting wet.
The females lay their orange, elongated and roughly longitudinally grooved eggs in small groups of 5 to 15 on the leaves and branches of the caterpillar forage plants. The caterpillars are nocturnal.
Food of the caterpillars
The caterpillars feed on passion flowers ( Passiflora ), in particular Passiflora suberosa , Passiflora lutea and Passiflora affinis . The caterpillars are inedible by the ingested poison of these plants, even for predators.
Flight and caterpillar times
The moths continuously produce generations. Only in the northernmost distribution areas do they only fly in the warm months.
Web links
- Species portrait of the Botanical Garden of the University of Osnabrück ( Memento from November 4, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
- Butterflies and Moths of North America (English)
- Butterflycorner.net (German)