Line swarmers
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Line hawk ( Hyles livornica ), male |
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| Hyles livornica | ||||||||||||
| ( Esper , 1780) |
The line hawk ( Hyles livornica ) is a butterfly ( moth ) from the family of hawkens (Sphingidae), which is primarily native to the ancient tropics and subtropics. It also flies to Europe as a migratory butterfly , but remains very rare here, apart from a few years with mass occurrences. The specific epithet livornica refers to the city of Livorno , where the first described specimen was found. The species got its German name because of the conspicuous white wing veins on the forewings.
It shares this characteristic with the Hyles lineata , which is common in America , which is therefore also known as the swarm of lines. For a long time Hyles livornica was seen as a subspecies of the American butterfly. It was not until the late 20th century that the view took hold that there are two different species. The mtDNA investigations now available show that the very similar species within the genus Hyles are not closely related to one another.
features
butterfly
The moths are very variable in size and have a wingspan of 46 to 85 millimeters in the west of the distribution area, the maximum wingspan in the east of the distribution area is slightly larger at 90 millimeters. Males are slightly smaller than females; Reinhardt and Harz give 46 to 80 millimeters for males and 67 to 85 millimeters for females. Apart from the intensity of their coloring and the degree of their patterning, their appearance is very uniform. The wings and the body of the animals are predominantly olive brown in color. The forewings are olive-brown with a lighter front edge and a weakly wavy longitudinal stripe, which begins as a broad white stripe on the rear edge near the wing root, then becomes yellowish and finally gradually narrows to the apex, where it changes its color again to whitish-gray. The narrow fringe is gray to brownish-gray, the inner wing edge is basal blackish, adjoining it is a white spot. The whitish to yellowish wing veins contrast strikingly with the basic color. On the forewings there is a very fine, point-like black discal spot with a whitish border , which is not always developed. The hind wings are rose-red with a black base and a consistently wide black band, the fringes are white. There is a white spot on the inner edge of the wing, which borders the pink area. Individuals from the east of the distribution area are darker in color than those from Central Asia and Africa. In the southern Sahara you can find small, pale colored animals, which are called forma saharae .
The head and back of the thorax are olive brown, the thorax is provided with white side stripes and white-edged shoulder coverts ( tegulae ). The olive-brown abdomen shows black and white segment incisions ; the first two segments have large black and white side spots. The antennae are dark olive brown and have a white tip. They are 8.5 to 14 millimeters long in the males and 9.5 to 11 millimeters in the females. The females have antennae with an almost round, underside slightly flattened cross-section, which are covered by shell-shaped structures. The males have antennae with a semicircular cross-section on the upper side, which, however, are pointed towards the underside. The top is scaled, the sides of the bulging underside have dense tufts of hair, which in all probability serve as receptors for pheromones .
egg
The eggs of the line swarm are pale green and slightly oval in shape. At 1.1 by 1.0 millimeters, they are very small in relation to the size of the butterfly.
Caterpillar
The caterpillars reach a body length of 65 to 80 millimeters. After hatching, they are three to four millimeters long, have a yellowish to whitish-green body color with a black head, thoracic legs and an equally colored, short anal horn . After starting to eat, the body turns gray or olive green. From this point on, the light longitudinal lines running on both sides of the back can already be seen.
From the second caterpillar stage, the caterpillars appear in two basic colors, olive green or black, although there are occasionally individuals that are gray-green in color. From this stage the caterpillars already have their final pattern, which becomes more apparent with each subsequent moult. An indicated yellow-green longitudinal line runs on the back (dorsal). Are striking on either side of the back (subdorsal) extending, yellow colored and the stigmas (infrastigmatal) extending yellow to almost orange colored longitudinal lines. The eye spots that appear later are clearly visible on the subdorsal line as widened yellow spots. The body is finely dotted with white dots, especially between the two longitudinal lines, the head has the basic body color.
After the second molt, black and green colored caterpillars continue to appear, the anal horn is monochrome black. The whitish dots on the body are more prominent and can make some specimens appear gray. The color and intensity of the back line is variable, the spectrum ranges from an almost absent indistinct drawing to a distinct, strong yellow color. In the case of green-colored caterpillars, the back line can be almost white. The subdorsal lines are light yellow, the eye spots are clearly recognizable in yellow and outlined in black, as the whitish dots are missing in this area. The infrastigmatic lines are yellow.
In the fourth caterpillar stage, the previously green colored animals also have a black base color, the head, stomach and thoracic legs are monochrome black. The dots are yellow. The dorsal line is often absent; if present, it is yellowish to orange or red in color. The subdorsals are also often absent, but are occasionally formed as a yellow line of spots or as a broad, continuous yellow line. The eye spots are yellow with an occasional orange cast. The black anal horn now has an orange base.
In the fifth and final caterpillar stage, the caterpillars are about 36 millimeters long after molting and develop to the length described at the beginning by the time they pupate. Their coloration is very variable at this stage. The basic color is black, the dots are yellow and often very dominant. The back is mostly black and often has saddle-like bulges on each segment, with this entire area not being punctured. The back line is yellowish, occasionally pink, and runs from the third segment to the base of the anal horn. The infrastigmatic lines are whitish and pale pink or as yellow or mostly orange rows of spots. The anal horn is yellow-orange to reddish-pink in color, with a black tip and has a rough-grained surface. It is almost straight, tapers evenly in a cone and ends in a blunt tip. The head and the saddle-like area on the back of the second body segment are colored black or pink. The yellowish, sometimes pink in the middle and rimmed with black, are round on the fourth to the 11th segment, pear-shaped on the 12th and separated into two separate spots on the 13th segment. Occasionally there is only a yellow vertical stripe instead of these eye spots. The legs and the pusher are black, the belly legs are pink and have black hook wreaths. The ventral side of the caterpillars is dull pink, the stigmas are white. There are individuals in which the topline, the infrastigmatic lines and the eye-spots are colored orange-red; others have green longitudinal stripes, are extensively black in color or have a purple-colored belly side. Pale apple-green shapes with yellow dots and eye spots are known from North Africa.
Doll
The doll is 30 to 45 millimeters long and has a dull, slightly grainy surface. It is variably brown in color, but can also be yellowish or even translucent. It is more elongated and slimmer than the pupae of most species of the genus Hyles . The cremaster , which, like the last abdominal segments, is darker brown in color than the rest of the surface of the doll, ends in a short, thin point, which only becomes recognizable as two short points when magnified.
Similar species
At first glance, the species can be confused with several species of the genus Hyles , such as the Hyles dahlii or Hyles tithymali , but can be easily distinguished by the brightly colored wing veins on the forewings. The Australian species Hyles livornicoides and the American species Hyles lineata look very similar to the swarm of lines because of their equally colored wing veins. However, females of Hyles lineata have whitish antennae on the upper side, while the males are yellowish-brown. Behind the head in the middle of the prothorax there is a white longitudinal stripe and a further, very fine median stripe on each of the tegulae. On the abdomen there are not two, but four to five black spots on both sides, which become evenly smaller towards the end of the abdomen. Hyles lineata also lacks the punctiform black discal spot on the forewings, although this is not a reliable distinguishing feature, since there are also individuals of Hyles livornica that lack this. Hyles livornicoides can also be distinguished from the swarm of lines by means of the evenly colored antennae.
distribution and habitat
Overall spread
The line hawk is widespread in the ancient tropics and subtropics and occurs from Africa through southern Europe , the Middle East , Central Asia , Siberia , southern India and China . The species is particularly common in the Ethiopian region , on the Arabian Peninsula and on the island of Socotra . It is also common in North Africa and the Canary Islands .
In Europe, the species occurs permanently only on the coasts of the Mediterranean and on the Mediterranean islands as well as on Madeira and the Canary Islands. However, it occasionally flies further north as a migrant butterfly in summer and can also penetrate far into Scandinavia. In the north, however, it is a very rare guest and is also very rare in Central Europe. The species is known from Asia in summer from Novosibirsk ( Bolotnoye ), some provinces of China, Taiwan , Japan , including Okinawa, as well as from a single find near Chiang Mai in Thailand .
habitat
Line swarmers inhabit a wide variety of open land habitats with sparse tree and shrub growth, from semi-deserts, steppes and savannahs to oases , rock corridors, dry slopes, beaches, open scrub forests , perennial corridors, ruderal areas , vineyards and gardens. It is also found in the high mountains, so the species has been detected in Nepal at over 4000 meters and in Tibet up to 3900 meters above sea level.
Way of life
The very active adults are mainly active in the evening, just before and during dusk between 8:00 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., but they also fly during their hiking flights in the morning and during the day in sunshine. At night they like to fly to light sources.
The animals are particularly attracted to the sweet smelling flowers. They are not picky about the search for nectar and were found on honeysuckles ( Lonicera ), soap herbs ( Saponaria ), flame flowers ( Phlox ), thorn apples ( Datura ), evening primrose ( Oenothera ), petunias ( Petunia ), cloves ( Dianthus ), verbenas ( Verbena) ), Single-flowered catchfly ( Silene uniflora ), pigeon goiter ( Silene vulgaris ), valerian ( Valeriana ) and sage ( Salvia ) detected. During their hiking flights in the Alps , they have also been observed on Western Alpine clover ( Trifolium alpinum ), woolly thistle ( Cirsium eriophorum ), gentians ( Gentiana ), anthyllis ( anthyllis ), clover herbs ( Silene ) and primrose plants (Primulaceae). During experiments, the moths quickly flew to purple and blue dummy flowers, but quickly learned to suckle nectar from white flowers. The take-off speed from the flowers is between 25 and 45 km / h, while hiking flights are estimated at a maximum flight speed of 70 km / h.
Hiking flights, flight and caterpillar times
The line swarm is a migratory butterfly that undertakes regular and long migrations. In particular, numerous moths that develop south of the Sahara fly northwards year after year and increase the North African populations after crossing the desert. A few of them also fly further north and thus reach Central Europe or even the North of Northern Europe. However, these inflows do not take place regularly and in strongly fluctuating numbers of individuals, just as the number of animals flying in in the Mediterranean area sometimes fluctuates considerably, as the species also tends to multiply. Traub in Ebert speaks of only one single butterfly discovery in Baden-Württemberg in 1992, at least from 1965 to 1993 , whereas in the extremely strong year 1946 millions of swarms of lines crossed the Alps and flew far into Northern Europe. These animals probably evolved on the Iberian Peninsula , where the caterpillars appeared in large numbers, especially in Andalusia around Jaén . This was the next generation of animals that had flown in from Africa in large numbers. Such mass occurrences are documented again and again, but in an average year only a few individuals are observed in Central Europe.
The moths fly in sub-Saharan Africa all year round in successive generations. In North Africa they are found from February (or earlier) to October, with several generations that cannot be clearly separated and the maximum is in March or April. In the east of Saudi Arabia , the species occurs in several generations from November to April, the maximum is here in January and February. Later in the year the moths evade the impending high temperatures with longer periods of daylight and migrate north. Their egg maturation is delayed by the longer duration of the day, the eggs mature during the migration and can then be laid in the cooler areas, such as in the Mediterranean region from the end of March. The flight time starts later even further north. In Central and Northern Europe, immigrating animals are usually observed only from May or June and then until September, whereby from July to September there may be a second generation flying in and, in some cases, descendants of the first immigrant generation. These offspring are rare, however, because caterpillars that have developed at day lengths of 16 hours and more, as is the case in May and June in the western Mediterranean region around the 40th parallel, are not fertile. Like the oleander hawk ( Daphnis nerii ), the line hawk needs short days with a maximum of 14 hours of light for its development, otherwise the maturation of the eggs is delayed so that the eggs can no longer develop. This is also the reason why in the extreme year 1946 only very few caterpillar finds from Central Europe and further north are documented. It is not known whether second-generation individuals from Central Europe can successfully fly south again, but they cannot survive the Central European winter.
In China, the species flies from April to September, from Russia it has been recorded from early June to early August.
The caterpillars are found in Africa all year round, in Central Europe only in the summer months. In the semi-desert regions of North Africa, the caterpillars can often be found in the hundreds of thousands after rainy winters.
Food of the caterpillars
The most important food plants of the caterpillars include dock ( Rumex ), bird knotweed ( Polygonum ) and in North Africa and the Middle East Affodill ( Asphodelus ), from which the flowers and the fruit clusters are eaten. However, the caterpillars of the swarm of lines are polyphagous and also feed on a very wide range of plants, such as grapevines ( Vitis vinifera ), virgin vines ( Parthenocissus ), fuchsias ( Fuchsia ), bedstraws ( Gallium ), snapdragons ( Antirrhinum ), plantain ( Plantago ), bean-like yoke leaf ( Zygophyllum fabago ), sorrel ( Emex spinosa ), pelargonium ( Pelargonium ), Boerhavia , beet ( Beta ), asparagus ( Asparagus ), acacia ( Acacia ), toadflax ( Linaria ), chickpeas ( Cicer ), buckwheat ( Fagopyrum ), scabiosa ( Scabiosa ), purple oak ( Lythrum ), gorse ( Genista ), maize ( Zea mays ), milkweed ( Euphorbia ), rhubarb ( Rheum ), strawberries ( Fragaria ) and privet ( Ligustrum ). In Asia Minor , the caterpillars have also been found on the inflorescences of steppe candles ( Eremurus ), in Tunisia and Libya they have been found on olive trees ( Olea europaea ), in the latter country also on willow-leaf acacia ( Acacia saligna ), Eucalyptus resinifera and Eucalyptus rostrata , whereby the caterpillars eating eucalyptus perished before pupation. If the species reproduces in Central Europe, the caterpillars are often found on real bedstraw ( Galium verum ), meadow bedstraw ( Galium mollugo ) and willowherb ( Epilobium ), but they are also found on most of the above-mentioned plants.
In spite of their polyphagous way of life, the caterpillars usually do not tolerate the change of food plants well and have to feed on the originally used food plant throughout their development.
Especially in the case of mass immigration, for example in the Mediterranean region, the caterpillars of the swarm of lines can be found on the western strawberry tree ( Arbutus unedo ), grapevines, on which they even eat the unripe fruit, artichokes ( Cynara ), garden lettuce ( Lactuca sativa ), potatoes ( Solanum tuberosum ) and occasionally on Real buckwheat ( Fagopyrum esculentum ) occur as pests. During these mass occurrences, the caterpillars can also appear on a variety of plants that would otherwise not be eaten, such as cotton ( Gossypium ) , if there is a lack of food .
Mating and laying eggs
The mating, in which the partners, as is usual with swarmers, are coupled with the body in opposite directions on the abdomen, always takes place before dawn and lasts two to three hours. The females lay their eggs on both the top and bottom of the host plants. A total of 200 to 300 eggs are laid in groups of four or five during a long flight over long distances.
development
The development of the line swarmers is similar to that of the similarly widespread and equally wandering oleander swarmers. The caterpillars hatch after an average of four days. The caterpillar time is stated differently in the literature as 12 to 17 days or 40 days, although it does not always depend on the temperature, but is usually longer at lower temperatures. In Switzerland, for example, outdoor breeding with caterpillars of eight to nine weeks has been documented. The caterpillars do not tolerate temperatures below 16 ° C and then no longer pupate. However, once pupated animals can tolerate lower temperatures of around 6 ° C, even for a short time down to −13 ° C, and then hatch after their development has been interrupted when the temperatures gradually rise. Pupation takes place in a loosely spun cocoon either in the litter and between dead plant material or in grass clusters . The pupa dormancy lasts two to four weeks or is the hibernation stage in areas where the species does not appear all year round. Occasionally the pupae can also lie over a year.
In all stages of feeding, the caterpillars sit relatively freely on their food plants, alternately quickly consuming large amounts of food and then sunbathing on the plants for longer periods of time. If the caterpillars are disturbed, younger animals let themselves fall from the plant, whereas older ones jerk their upper body from one side to the other and choke up food pulp.
Specialized enemies
So far, four specialized parasitoids of the caterpillars of the line swarm are known. These are the caterpillar flies Drino vicina , Drino imberbis , Nemorilla maculosa and Spoggosia aegyptiaca in the western distribution area . No parasitoids are known from the east of the distribution area. The females of these parasitoids lay their eggs on the caterpillars, in which the hatched larvae then develop. Pupation usually takes place on the outside of the previously dead caterpillars.
Taxonomy and systematics
Eugen Johann Christoph Esper described the swarm of lines in 1780 based on a specimen found in Italy near Livorno as Sphinx livornica . Jacob Hübner placed the species in the genus Hyles , which he had newly established in 1819 , to which the species is still assigned today.
Until the 20th century, Hyles livornica was regarded as con-specific with the American Hyles lineata and can therefore be found under this name (or as Celerio lineata ssp. Livornica ) in older literature. It was the same with Hyles livornicoides , which is now also listed as a separate species and which is common in Australia. The three species have a very similar coloration and pattern, which differentiates them from the other species of the genus and which is why they were considered to be closely related even after being broken down into three separate species, especially since at least two of them can easily be hybridized with one another. However, mtDNA studies have shown that the species are by no means very closely related. Hyles lineata is very likely in a sister group relationship to all other species of the genus Hyles . The relationships between H. livornica and H. livornicoides have not yet been researched with sufficient certainty, but it is assumed that H. livornica is in a sister group relationship to a group consisting of Hyles vespertillio and the species of the Hyles euphorbiae complex in the broader sense ( sl ).
In the Palearctic species of the genus Hyles , the following relationships result:
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Based on the DNA examinations, it is certain that H. livornica forms a genetic and taxonomic unit in its entire Afro-Palearctic distribution. This also means that the species rank of H. malgassica from Namibia, South Africa and Madagascar cannot be maintained, but that this group is also a representative of H. livornica . The same applies to the population of the Cape Verde Islands , in which studies on the main island of Santiago have shown that the animals, albeit smaller and paler in color, do not differ genetically from the other individuals of Hyles livornica . No subspecies of Hyles lineata are described.
Synonyms
- Sphinx livornica Esper, 1780
- Phinx koechlini Fuessly, 1781 Arch. Insect history 1: 1
- Celerio malgassica Denso 1944
- Celerio saharae Gehlen, 1932
- Celerio tatsienluica Oberthür, 1916
- Celerio lineata saharae Stauder, 1921 German. ent. Z. Iris 35: 179
Danger
Due to its wide distribution and frequency, the line swarm is not endangered. As a migratory butterfly it is usually not included in the Red Lists of Endangered Species in Central Europe ; in Germany it is listed as a migratory butterfly and classified as harmless. The species is not recorded in the Federal Species Protection Ordinance (BArtSchV).
swell
Individual evidence
- ^ A b c Anna K. Hundsdoerfer, Ian J. Kitching, Michael Wink: A molecular phylogeny of the hawkmoth genus Hyles (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae, Macroglossinae) , Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 35 (2005) 442-458
- ^ A b c d e f Rolf Reinhardt, Kurt Harz: Wandering Schwärmerarten. Skull, curling, oleander and line swarmers. Die Neue Brehm-Bücherei Vol. 596, Westarp & Spectrum, Magdeburg, Heidelberg, Berlin and Oxford 1996, ISBN 3-89432-859-2
- ↑ a b c d Sphingidae of the Eastern Palaearctic. AR Pittaway, accessed March 30, 2009 .
- ↑ a b Günter Ebert (Hrsg.): The butterflies 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
- ↑ a b Sphingidae of the Western Palaearctic. AR Pittaway, accessed March 31, 2009 .
- ^ Hyles livornica. (No longer available online.) Sciense4you, archived from the original on April 26, 2009 ; Retrieved March 20, 2009 . 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.
- ↑ a b c d A. R. Pittaway: The Hawkmoths of the western Palaearctic. Harley Books 1993, ISBN 0-946589-21-6
- ↑ a b c d e f Hyles livornica (Esper 1780). Fauna Europaea, Version 1.3, April 19, 2007 , accessed on March 31, 2009 .
- ↑ Heimo Harbich: Notes on the Hyles livornica (ESPER, 1779) complex - especially on the population of the Cape Verde Islands (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae) . In: Entomological Journal, Volume 117, Issue 4, August 15, 2007, pp. 155ff.
literature
- Arno Bergmann: The large butterflies of Central Germany. Volume 3: Weirdos and Swarmers. Distribution, forms and communities. Urania-Verlag, Jena 1953, DNB 450378365 .
- Günter Ebert: The butterflies of Baden Württemberg . 1st edition. tape 4 . Moths II Bombycidae, Endromidae, Lasiocampidae, Lemoniidae, Saturniidae, Sphingidae, Drepanidae, Notodontidae, Dilobidae, Lymantriidae, Ctenuchidae, Nolidae . Ulmer, Stuttgart (Hohenheim) 1994, ISBN 3-8001-3474-8 .
- Josef J. de Freina, Thomas J. Witt: Noctuoidea, Sphingoidea, Geometroidea, Bombycoidea . In: The Bombyces and Sphinges of the Western Palaearctic . 1st edition. tape 1 . EFW Edition Research & Science, Munich 1987, ISBN 3-926285-00-1 .
- Ian J. Kitching, Jean-Marie Cadiou: Hawkmoths of the World. An Annotated and Illustrated Revisionary Checklist (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae) . 1st edition. Cornell University Press, New York 2000, ISBN 0-8014-3734-2 (English).
- Manfred Koch : We determine butterflies. Volume 2: Bears, Spinners, Swarmers and Drills in Germany. 2nd, expanded edition. Neumann, Radebeul / Berlin 1964, DNB 452481929 .
- AR Pittaway: The Hawkmoths of the western Palaearctic . Harley Books, 1993, ISBN 0-946589-21-6 .
- Peter V. Küppers: Small butterflies. Recognize, determine . 1st edition. Fauna-Verlag, Nottuln 2008, ISBN 978-3-935980-24-1 .
- Hans-Josef Weidemann, Jochen Köhler: Moths, Spinners and Swarmers . Naturbuch-Verlag, Augsburg 1996, ISBN 3-89440-128-1 .
