Lady-in-waiting (butterfly)

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Lady in waiting
Court lady (Arctia aulica)

Court lady ( Arctia aulica )

Systematics
Class : Insects (Insecta)
Order : Butterflies (Lepidoptera)
Family : Owl butterfly (Erebidae)
Subfamily : Bear Moth (Arctiinae)
Genre : Arctia
Type : Lady in waiting
Scientific name
Arctia aulica
( Linnaeus , 1758)
Court lady laying eggs

The lady-in-waiting ( Arctia aulica , Syn . : Hyphoraia aulica ) is a butterfly ( moth ) from the subfamily of the bear moth (Arctiinae).

features

The moths reach a wingspan of 34 to 38 millimeters. They have brown fore wings with white spots. Their hind wings are light orange or ocher yellow with black spots. Your abdomen is alternately black and yellow ocher stripes. This makes them look like wasps ( mimicry ). They wear thick fur around their heads.

The caterpillars are black and, depending on their age, have reddish-brown to black, long hair.

Similar species

Occurrence

The species is distributed from Central Europe and through the temperate zone to the Amur region in the east. In the south it is found in the Balkans and the Black Sea . In the north, the distribution extends to northern Fennoscandia (southern Finland and southern Sweden ).

The moths prefer warm, sunny and dry areas with little vegetation, e.g. B. Lean lime lawns , gorse heaths and dry, stony slopes.

Flight times

The moths fly in one generation from mid-May to July. In Germany, depending on the climatic conditions, a second partial generation is apparently possible.

Way of life

nutrition

The caterpillars are polyphagous and eat various plants such as B.

The moths do not ingest food, they only live to mate. The males live about a week, the females up to a month. During this time they distribute as many eggs as possible.

Mating and laying eggs

In contrast to the females, the males are diurnal and find the females through pheromones , which they secrete. During the day, the females sit resting in the grass. Due to the weight of the eggs in the body, they are very sluggish and therefore highly exposed to enemies. The weight can be recognized by the body sagging heavily between the wings. The more eggs are laid, the more active the animals become. This allows them to lay their last eggs at a greater distance in order to colonize new areas.

A total of around 400 to 500 eggs are placed below leaves in packages of 50 to 100 pieces each. They are small, white and round as a ball.

Larval development and way of life of the caterpillars

The caterpillars, which hatch about ten days after laying their eggs, are exposed to the wind due to their low weight and long hair, which helps the animals to spread better. The long hair also protects against predators. During the day they hide under leaves and also in webs woven by them. They develop very slowly and molt six times in the first year.

To hibernate, they crawl into the mosses and lichens that grow on the ground , on which they also feed in winter. Their greatest enemy here is the parasitic fungus Empusa aulicae , which can decimate or even wipe out populations. 3 The caterpillars appear briefly in spring, but when it gets warmer, they crawl back into the moss layer. After another two to three moults, they pupate in a web between the plant material.

The moths hatch two to three weeks after pupation.

Hazard and protection

The lady-in-waiting has become very rare in Germany and is therefore listed in the Red List of Endangered Animals in Germany: Category 1 (threatened with extinction).

swell

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ K. Rönka, J. Mappes, L. Kaila, N. Wahlberg: Putting Parasemia in its phylogenetic place: a molecular analysis of the subtribe Arctiina (Lepidoptera) . In: Systematic Entomology . tape 41 , 2016, p. 844-853 , doi : 10.1111 / syen.12194 .
  2. ↑ Paolo Mazzei, Diego Reggianti, Ilaria Pimpinelli: Moths and Butterflies of Europe and North Africa. Retrieved January 22, 2008 .
  3. ↑ Günter Ebert (Ed.): The Butterflies of Baden-Württemberg Volume 5, Moths III (Sesiidae, Arctiidae, Noctuidae). Ulmer Verlag Stuttgart 1997. ISBN 3-8001-3481-0
  4. ↑ J. Schönfelder (1969b): A partially second generation of Hyphoraia aulica L. (No longer available online.) Uwe Lehmann, archived from the original on October 14, 2007 ; Retrieved January 22, 2008 . 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.entomologie-grossenhain.de
  5. ↑ Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (Ed.): Red List of Endangered Animals in Germany. Landwirtschaftsverlag, Münster 1998, ISBN 3-89624-110-9

literature

Web links

Commons : Lady-in-waiting ( Hyphoraia aulica )  - Collection of images, videos and audio files