Milkweed hawks
| Milkweed hawks | ||||||||||||
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Spurge Hawk ( Hyles euphorbiae ) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Hyles euphorbiae | ||||||||||||
| ( Linnaeus , 1758) |
The Spurge Hawk ( Hyles euphorbiae ) is a butterfly ( moth ) from the family of moth (Sphingidae). It was named Butterfly of the Year 2014 by the BUND environmental foundation.
features
The moths reach a wingspan of 70 to 85 millimeters and have a fairly variable coloration. The forewings have a light yellow-brown or light pink base color. A sharply demarcated, wedge-shaped, dark brown to olive-green band parallel to the outer edge covers a large part of the rear half of the wings, the outer edge is usually broadly colored in the basic color. The basic color is covered by a larger brown to olive green spot on the base of the wing and one to three other, smaller ones along the front edge.
The hind wings are dominated by a central red to pink area with a broad black border. The base of the wings is colored black, the outer edge is ocher brown, on the inner edge there is a washed out white spot. There are color variants of the kind in which the hind wings have no red or are completely red in color; instead of red, the center can also be colored rust-brown or yellow. The forewing color is also very variable and in extreme cases can be almost completely brown and only have a few small, cream-colored areas instead of the central light band. The very hairy thorax has the same coloration as the spots on the forewings and has white or pink hair on the sides and sometimes also from the rear side to about the middle of the thorax. The abdomen has the same basic color as the thorax and has four alternating black and white tufts of hair on the first three segments on the upper side; however, the middle of the back is also colored in the basic color on these segments.
The caterpillars are 70 to 80 millimeters long and are also very variable, but striking in color. The conspicuous pigmentation is interpreted as a warning color due to the unsavory taste / toxicity due to the corresponding toxic ingredients of the forage plants. The common forage plant of the caterpillars is cypress milkweed . At first they have a yellow-green, later orange to red basic color, but there are also green, yellow-brown or black colored animals. On the sides of each segment they have a pair of white, black-edged spots arranged one below the other, between which numerous small white, also black-edged spots are distributed on the side of the body. In extreme cases, these small spots can be completely absent and make the basic color clearly visible. The large spots can also be colored yellow, green or orange. The back bears an initially yellow, later red longitudinal line, and sometimes a green, yellowish-brown or black longitudinal line runs along the sides of the body. The legs, head capsule and anal horn are orange to red in color, the latter has a black tip.
Preparation ♂
Preparation ♂ △
Preparation ♀
Preparation ♀ △
Similar species
- Bedstraw hawks ( Hyles galii ) (Rottemburg, 1775)
- Hyles dahlii (Geyer, 1827)
- Hyles tithymali (Boisduval, 1832)
- Sea buckthorn hawks ( Hyles hippophaes ) (Esper, 1793)
- Line swarmers ( Hyles livornica ) (Esper, 1779)
- Hyles nicaea (de Prunner, 1798)
- Hyles centralasiae (Staudinger, 1887)
Occurrence
The animals come from North Africa across South and Central Europe east to China . Occasionally they can be found as wanderers as far as southern Northern Europe. They live in warm and dry areas where the caterpillar forage plants grow, such as on dry grass , ruderal areas , in gravel pits, on inland dunes and on sunny slopes, the edges of fields and roads. They are declining in their numbers, but occur locally, especially in warm locations.
Way of life
During the day, the moths sit on stones, walls, in low vegetation or even on the ground. When disturbed, they curve the abdomen downwards and unfold the wings so that the red hind wings become visible. Because of their caterpillar forage plants, they are inedible to predators. They become active shortly after sunset, but only fly briefly. The flight phases are repeated three to four times until around midnight. Mating takes about three hours. Immediately afterwards, the female lays some eggs, but most of them are not laid until the next day. They suck nectar on various flowers, but very rarely come to light.
Flight and caterpillar times
The moths fly in one generation from mid-May to July. In warm years, a partly incomplete second generation develops from August to mid-September. The caterpillars are found from July to September.
Food of the caterpillars
The caterpillars feed on spurge ( Euphorbia ), especially beach spurge ( Euphorbia paralias ), cypress spurge ( Euphorbia cyparissias ) and, in southern Europe, palisade spurge ( Euphorbia characias ). In Central Europe they feed almost exclusively on cypress milkweed. Very often you can track on sorrel ( Rumex ), Vogelknöterichen ( Polygonum ), vines ( Vitis ), dog's mercury herbs ( Mercurialis ) and fireweed ( Epilobium find). In Switzerland, the caterpillars often feed on knotweed ( Polygonum aviculare ).
development
The females lay their roughly one millimeter long, blue-green shimmering eggs individually or in small clutches of six to 20 on the young shoots of the forage plants. Their shell is unusually hard. The four millimeter short caterpillars hatch after about ten days and initially live socially, only later they live alone. After hatching, they are light colored, only the anal horn and the head capsule are black. They are initially nocturnal, larger caterpillars also eat clearly visible during the day and rely on their warning color , this behavior is called aposematism . Although they do not store toxins in their bodies , their stomach contents are poisonous . In the event of danger, they can expel it with violent movements from the mouth. On very hot days they climb high up on the plants to escape the heat of the ground. The overwintering takes place as a pupa near the ground between spun plant parts.
swell
Individual evidence
- ↑ bund.net: The milkweed hawk is butterfly of the year 2014 (accessed December 5, 2013)
- ^ A b Hans-Josef Weidemann, Jochen Köhler: Moths. Weirdos and hawkers. Naturbuch-Verlag, Augsburg 1996, ISBN 3-89440-128-1 , p. 48ff.
- ↑ Heiko Bellmann : The new Kosmos butterfly guide. Butterflies, caterpillars and forage plants. Franckh-Kosmos, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-440-09330-1 , p. 104.
- ↑ a b c Sphingidae of the Western Palaearctic. AR Pittaway, accessed August 4, 2007 .
- ↑ Manfred Koch : We identify butterflies. Volume 2: Bears, Spinners, Swarmers and Drills in Germany. 2nd, expanded edition. Neumann, Radebeul / Berlin 1964, DNB 452481929 , p. 108f.
literature
- Günter Ebert: The Butterflies of Baden-Württemberg Volume 4, Moths II (Bombycidae, Endromidae, Lemoniidae, Saturniidae, Sphingidae, Drepanidae, Notodontidae, Dilobidae, Lymantriidae, Ctenuchidae, Nolidae). Ulmer Verlag Stuttgart 1994. ISBN 3-8001-3474-8
Web links
- www.lepiforum.de: Taxonomy and photos
- www.schmetterling-raupe.de
- AR Pittaway: Sphingidae of the Western Palaearctic (English)
- Moths and Butterflies of Europe and North Africa (English)
- Hyles euphorbiae at Fauna Europaea
Graubindiger Mohrenfalter (2003) | Aurora Butterfly (2004) | Ocher-binding velvet butterfly (2005) | Swallowtail (2006) | Map (2007) | Argusbläuling (2008) | Peacock butterfly (2009) | Schönbär (2010) | Great Schiller Butterfly (2011) | Little Peacock Butterfly (2012) | Brown-spotted mother-of-pearl butterfly (2013) | Spurge Hawk (2014) | Red ribbon (2015) | Gooseberry Tender (2016) | Golden Eight (2017) | Big Fox (2018) | Checkerboard Butterfly (2019)