Bait catching (butterflies)

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Blue ribbon ( Catocala fraxini ) on red wine bait

A bait for butterflies is used to attract moths , but also butterflies , in order to be able to prove their occurrence in selected regions.

Basics

Chemical orientation

Almost all butterflies seek their food sources, including the artificial bait, with the help of the chemical sense. This phenomenon is particularly well known in the skull hawk, which even penetrates beehives, but also flies to artificial honey baits. The antennae and the proboscis are the carriers of the chemical senses. It has been observed in owl butterflies that as soon as a tarse, especially that of the first pair of legs, touches the bait, the proboscis is unrolled and the butterfly begins to suckle.

Meteorological influences

The wind strength and the wind direction have a decisive influence on the orientation of the moths to the food source. The smell of food is displayed to the animals by the wind, which then change the direction of flight towards the source and fly to it in circling search movements. The approach is always against, never with the wind towards the bait. When there is no wind, the smell of the bait can only be perceived from about three meters, with light wind from about 30 meters and with stronger wind from up to 500 meters. Other weather factors are temperature, humidity and changes in the electrical potential gradient in the atmosphere. Favorable conditions prevail in warm, cloudy, slightly windy weather (wind force 2 to 3). Even light rain is not a problem. At low temperatures, i.e. H. below 5 ° C in spring or below 10 ° C in summer, there is generally no foraging flight. The approach of the night butterflies to the bait begins at dusk in every season and lasts about an hour in spring, and usually two hours in summer and autumn.

Moth

There are a number of different recipes for attracting butterflies. For example, a bait made from a mixture of dark beer and honey or syrup has proven itself . Such a mixture is used in a slightly fermented state for better effectiveness. The intense smell generated thereby increases the attractiveness for the butterflies. Adding a small amount of rum has the advantage that the moths sit more calmly on the bait. Another popular bait is the red wine bait, which is a mixture of red wine and sugar. Simple baker's yeast can be added for better fermentation . Additions of fruits such as pears or bananas are also possible. The baits are picked up by means of suction probes. The best effect of the bait is achieved if the bait liquid is applied in the afternoon with a brush at a height of about 1.5 to 2 meters on tree trunks or fence posts with the dimensions of about 10 × 6 centimeters. At dusk, when the moths begin to approach, and during the night, these places can then be checked with a torch and the species sitting around the painted areas can be easily identified, counted and cataloged.

Another variant is the apple slice bait. Here, apple slices are pulled onto a string like a chain, moistened with the applied attractant liquid and hung on trees or bushes.

Luring by means of bait is promising insofar as some species of moths, especially many owl butterflies , are dependent on heavy food intake for final maturation. In nature, this need is met by tree sap. Some nocturnal species visit bait more often than light; this makes them easier and better to observe and prove.

Examples of particularly conspicuous bait visitors are:

Other examples of owl butterfly species that love to visit the various baits include:

The kitten owls listed above prefer to suckle on blooming willow kittens in early spring, the winter owls hibernate as butterflies and consequently have a great need for food in late autumn.

Butterflies

Certain butterfly species can also be attracted with bait, although they are completely different. So Schillerfalter happy to take strong smelling cheese as bait, while normally with their proboscis to suck feces, urine or carrion. In particular, the following should be mentioned:

Small butterfly on faeces
Tropical whiteflies at the waterhole
Cypress wolf milk glass winged winged pheromone bait

Other types, such as B. Mourning robes and admirals can be lured with overripe, slightly fermented fruits as bait.

A large number of day butterflies like to suckle at water points in order to be able to absorb minerals from the soil. These include, in particular, butterflies from the white family (Pieridae) such as the little cabbage white butterfly , bluebells (Lycaenidae) such as the common blue-toothed butterfly and knight butterflies (Papilionidae) such as swallowtail and sail butterfly . Waterholes are often visited by hundreds of butterflies, especially in tropical areas. During large dry periods it is advantageous to create artificial water points as a source of food and bait for observation. To absorb minerals, some species of noble butterfly in nature sometimes fly on the arms and back of the hands in humans to soak up sweat. In the Mediterranean area, this behavior can often also be observed in the strawberry tree butterfly. So the person then serves as bait himself, so to speak.

Pests

Attractant traps , also called pheromone traps, are used to combat harmful butterfly species . Here, the male moths are attracted with artificial female sexual scents of the respective species, which then stick to sticky surfaces. In this way, these animals can no longer reach the females and make no contribution to reproduction. Certain glass-winged species, such as the male alder glass-winged bird , fly to such a bait in large numbers at times, as does the cypress wolf-winged glass-winged bird .

More bait visitors

A number of other animal species appear on the bait, sometimes in large numbers. These include: beetles, hornets, wasps, ants, as well as snails. When there is a strong butterfly approach, bats and owls try to prey on the approaching animals, and shrews and toads sometimes lurk on the ground for falling butterflies.

swell

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e G. Lederer: Foraging and eating of the lepidopters flying at dusk and at night. - Entomological journal. 69th year 1959, Alfred Kernen Verlag Stuttgart.
  2. ↑ Manfred Koch : We identify butterflies. Volume 1: Butterfly. 4th enlarged edition. Neumann, Radebeul / Berlin 1966, DNB 457244224 .
  3. ↑ Otto Sterzl: Catching butterflies with bait (bait bait and apple strings). Wiener Entomologische Rundschau FNS 1st year p. 15.
  4. ↑ a b Karl Cleve: The approach of the night butterflies to the light and to the bait. Entomological Journal, Volume 81, No. 12, 1971, Alfred Kernen Verlag, Stuttgart.
  5. ↑ Günter Ebert, Erwin Rennwald: The butterflies of Baden-Württemberg Volume 1, Tagfalter I. Ulmer Verlag Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-800-13451-9 .
  6. ↑ Günter Ebert (Ed.): The Butterflies of Baden-Württemberg Volume 5, Moths III (Sesiidae, Arctiidae, Noctuidae). Ulmer Verlag, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-8001-3481-0 .