Pine owl

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Pine owl
Pine Owl (Panolis flammea)

Pine Owl ( Panolis flammea )

Systematics
Superfamily : Noctuoidea
Family : Owl butterfly (Noctuidae)
Subfamily : Hadeninae
Tribe : Orthosiini
Genre : Panolis
Type : Pine owl
Scientific name
Panolis flammea
( Denis & Schiffermüller , 1775)
Caterpillar

The pine beauty ( Panolis flammea ), also called Forleule called, is a butterfly ( moth ) from the family of cutworms (Noctuidae).

features

The pine owl is a medium-sized moth with a wingspan of 30 to 40 millimeters. The color of the forewings is variable and ranges from cinnamon red, yellow-brown to gray-brown. Ring and kidney defects are relatively large and very clearly developed on the forewings. The ring flaw is pointed towards the apex . The kidney flaw is strongly curved outwards and its long edge touches the edge of the subcostal artery. The hind wings are dark brown or gray-black and surrounded by a white fringe. The head is very hairy and, like the chest, reddish gray in color. The abdomen is yellow-gray and also hairy.

The eggs are hemispherical and grooved lengthways. At the beginning of the egg development they are green, later they take on a whitish to reddish color.

The caterpillars are up to 37–40 millimeters long. They are hairless and have three pairs of thoracic legs and four pairs of legs on abdominal segments 3-6 and a pair of followers on the last abdominal segment. The L1 caterpillar is light yellow to light green in color and has a yellow colored head. The light longitudinal band is only indistinctly developed. The first pair of ventral feet is initially weak in the L1 and L2 caterpillars; as a result, they move like a spanner . The later caterpillar stages have a red-brown head. They show a light back line and three light vertical bars on each side.

The pupa is black-brown to dark red-brown in color and grows to 15 mm. It has a small, conical cremaster on which two pointed bristles and four short bristles sit.

Similar species

Because of its characteristic drawing, the pine owl cannot be confused with any other owl butterfly species.

Geographical distribution and habitat

The habitat of the pine owl is the same as that of the pine. Only in the southern and northern border areas does it not follow the forage crop quite as far. The distribution area extends in the west of Catalonia over southern France , central Italy, central Europe to western Siberia, the Caucasus region and Asia Minor. In the north it extends to the Arctic Circle, in the south to the northern Iberian Peninsula , Italy (including Sicily and Sardinia )

It inhabits sparse pine forests with sandy or stony soil, but also quarries and gardens. It is not uncommon. In the Alps it rises to 1700 m.

Way of life

The species forms one generation per year. The moths fly early in the year from March to June. The nocturnal moths feed on willow - birch - and alder - pollen and blackthorn ( Prunus spinosa ). The moths are attracted to artificial light sources, but they do not get much bait . Mating takes place at night. The females then lay the eggs in rows on the previous year's needles in the crown area of ​​the trees, preferring the underside. A female lays up to 200 eggs in the crown area of ​​25- to 50-year-old trees over a period of two to nine days. The average ice time is around 14 days and is strongly temperature dependent. Caterpillars can be found in June and July. The caterpillars eat almost exclusively on the needles of the Scots pine ( Pinus sylvestris ), only when they are mass reproduced are they also found on spruce ( Picea abies ) and silver fir ( Abies alba ). It also feeds on the needles of the Weymouth pine ( Pinus strobus ) imported from North America . The larval development takes an average of four weeks in Central Europe. Five larval stages are passed through. The egg caterpillars (L1) are dependent on the needles of the May shoot. But you can also dig into the buds if the budding is delayed due to bad weather. From the second larval stage (L2) they already feed on the needles from the previous year, but still prefer the young shoots. The fully grown caterpillars can then be found on the old needles. They live in the crown of the trees. Due to the stripes and the elongated body shape, the caterpillars are perfectly camouflaged on their food plant between the similar-looking needles. During larval development, the larvae are parasitized relatively frequently, which can quickly stop mass reproduction. To pupate, the caterpillars either simply drop out of the crown or they wander down the trunk. They pupate on the ground under moss and overwinter as a pupa in a solid cocoon in the ground before they hatch as moths in spring.

Harmful effect

The pine owl is one of the forest pests and can cause great damage in monocultures . In the case of mass reproduction, the caterpillars develop on many small areas at the same time, so that entire regions are combined into one infested area. In the following year, however, due to the amazing regenerative capacity of the jaws, hardly any traces of the baldness can be found. However, the weakened trees can more easily be attacked by so-called secondary pests. These include bark beetles and weevil species from the genus Pissodes.

A first historical report dates back to 1777 and provides information about an infestation in the Groß Schönebecker Forest ( Brandenburg ).

In 1924 and 1925 the moths, then known as Forleulen , caused great damage to the forest in Schwerin on the Warta . Literally it says: "What floods , which haunted the network break year after year , could not accomplish, what border regulations [...] could not, the forleulenfraß of the years 1924 and 1925 did."

The last known infestation was registered in Poland in 2001 .

Systematics

Formerly a subspecies of Panolis flammea looked japonica Draudt, 1935, now considered a separate species Panolis japonica construed Draudt, 1835th This reduces the range of Panolis flammea compared to older information.

Literature and Sources

  • Arno Bergmann: The large butterflies of Central Germany. Volume 4/2: Owls. Distribution, forms and communities. Urania-Verlag, Jena 1954, DNB 450378381 .
  • Michael Chinery: Collins Field Guide. Insects of Britain and Northern Europe . HarperCollins, London 1999, ISBN 0-002-19918-1 .
  • Michael Chinery: Parey's Book of Insects. A field guide of European insects. Franckh-Kosmos, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-440-09969-5 .
  • Günter Ebert (Ed.), Axel Steiner: The butterflies of Baden-Württemberg. Volume 7, Moths V (Owls (Noctuidae)). 3rd part, Ulmer Verlag, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-800-13500-0 .
  • Lázló Ronkay, José Luis Yela & Márton Hreblay: Hadeninae II . In: Michael Fibiger, Martin Honey (Ed.): Noctuidae Europaeae . tape 5 . Entomological Press, Sorø 2001, ISBN 87-89430-06-9 (English).
  • Manfred Koch : We determine butterflies. Volume 3: Owls. 2nd, expanded edition. Neumann, Leipzig / Radebeul 1972, DNB 760072930 .
  • Wolfgang Schwenke (Hrsg.) Among others: The forest pests of Europe. Volume 3: Butterflies. Paul Parey Publishing House, Hamburg / Berlin 1978, ISBN 3-490-11316-0 .
  • Fritz Schwerdtfeger : The forest diseases. Textbook of forest pathology and forest protection . 4th, revised edition. Paul Parey, Hamburg / Berlin 1981, ISBN 3-490-09116-7 .
  • Bernard Skinner: Color Identification Guide to Moths of the British Isles . Viking, London 1998, ISBN 0-670-87978-9 .
  • Walter Weckwerth: The pine or forleule . Westarp Sciences, Hohenwarsleben 2003, ISBN 3-894-32578-X .

Web links

Commons : Pine Owl  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Hacker 2003: p. 20/1.
  2. ↑ Forster 1954: pp. 89-90.
  3. ↑ a b c Bergmann 1954: pp. 829-831.
  4. ↑ Ebert 1998: pp. 317-321.
  5. ↑ a b Panolis flammea ship. - Pine owl, forleule. www.faunistik.net, archived from the original on July 4, 2008 ; Retrieved December 20, 2007 .
  6. ↑ 100,000 acres of forest destroyed In: Vossische Zeitung , April 21, 1929.