Jaw tensioner

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Jaw tensioner
Pine moth (Bupalus piniaria), male

Pine moth ( Bupalus piniaria ), male

Systematics
Order : Butterflies (Lepidoptera)
Family : Spanner (Geometridae)
Subfamily : Ennominae
Tribe : Bupalini
Genre : Bupalus
Type : Jaw tensioner
Scientific name
Bupalus piniaria
( Linnaeus , 1758)
Pine moth
above: males
below: females
Caterpillar
Eggs

The Kiefernspanner ( Bupalus piniaria ), also common Kiefernspanner or Common Lichtwald-Kiefernspanner is a butterfly ( moth ) from the family of the Spanner (Geometridae).

features

butterfly

The male moths have a wingspan of 30 to 35 millimeters, the females 31 to 34 mm. Males and females also show sexual dimorphism in color and drawing. The forewings of the males usually have a white to light yellow basic color, which in the male is more or less darkened by brown spots. The outer third of the fore wing in particular is often darkened. The females are yellowish in basic color and also more or less darkened. The drawing and the extent of the darkening are very variable; therefore over 20 subspecies, shapes and aberrations were distinguished. In the north of the distribution area, rather dark forms are predominant, while in the south there are more specimens with more lighter colors. Bergmann observed that warmth during the pupal phase produced males with a more yellow base color; the females were more pure brown or yellow in color. Pupae in cold conditions gave males with white, e.g. T. also gray-tinted basic colors, the females were z. Sometimes strongly tinted gray. Pupae under particularly dry conditions gave forms with strong lightening, pupae under rather humid conditions gave strongly darkened moths. The hind wings are more uniformly brownish in color.

The underside of the hind wings shows a white (longitudinal) smear that stretches from the basal field approximately in the middle to the outer edge. It is usually interrupted by two weak, curved, mostly brown transverse lines.

The male has feather-like antennae, the females bristle-like antennae.

Egg, caterpillar and pupa

The oval, light green colored egg is sculpted leather-like. It has a diameter of 0.8 mm. The micropyl rosette is eight-part, surrounded by two net-shaped fields and lies in a flat hollow.

The caterpillar grows up to 30 mm long. It is intensely green in color with a white, dark-lined topline. The side back lines are finer than the back line and are also darkly lined. The side stripes are bright yellow and z. T. also colored white. The head is striped green and light.

The shiny brown doll is stocky, the cremaster ends in a simple point. The doll is up to 1.5 cm long.

Geographical distribution and habitat

The species is distributed throughout Europe from the Iberian Peninsula and the British Isles in the west to Siberia (Kazakhstan). In the south the distribution area extends to North Africa (Morocco), in the north to the Arctic Circle. However, the species is bound to its main food plants (pines) and can therefore be completely absent locally. In the mountains the species rises up to 1600 m.

Accordingly, the species occurs in coniferous forests, preferably naturally in pine forests. Other habitats occupied by pines are also being settled.

Way of life

The pine moth forms one generation a year; the moths fly in Central Europe from mid / late May to around mid July. The moths rarely appear earlier or can still be observed in August. They are diurnal, the flight staggering a bit. But they also come to light at night. The wings are in the resting position and the copula is raised at an angle. The eggs are laid in rows (about 5 to 25 in a row) on the needles of the host plants; up to about 150 eggs in total. As food plants of the caterpillars are proven:

According to other authors, the caterpillars also feed on the common spruce ( Picea abies ), silver fir ( Abies alba ), European larch ( Larix decidua ) and common juniper ( Juniperus communis ).

In autumn, the adult caterpillars drop to the ground or crawl down the trunk. There they hide in the earth. They remain there initially unpuped, only to pupate in the "post-winter" period. Other authors state that the pupa hibernates.

Systematics and taxonomy

The species was first scientifically described by Carl von Linné in 1758 under the binomial Phalaena Gemetra Piniaria . It is the type species of the genus Bupalus Leach, 1815. Occasionally the name appears in the misspelling piniarius . Piniaria is a noun in apposition, the ending of which is not adapted to the gender of the genus.

Due to the great variation in drawing and coloring, a whole series of nomenclaturally available subspecies names were set up, in addition to the nomenclaturally invalid forms and aberrations. According to Leraut (2009), however, none of the subspecies can be recognized taxonomically, as they occur in the entire distribution area, albeit in different proportions of the total population. Leraut distinguishes the following forms in males:

  • Background color pure white: f. albida Lempke, 1970
  • Background color yellowish: f. flavescens White, 1876
  • Background color bright yellow: f. flava Lempke, 1970.
  • with light spots on the costal margin near the wing apex: f. costimaculata Lempke, 1953
  • a dark line on the forewing divides the lightened field into two subfields: f dziurzynskii Koller, 1912
  • few brightened areas: f. nigricans Dziurzynski, 1912
  • lightened area very much reduced: f. funebris Cockayne, 1939
  • Wing practically completely darkened: f. nigricarius Backhaus, 1889

In the females:

  • Fore wing color almost uniform, light ocher yellow: f. fulvaria Dziurzynski, 1912.
  • Fore wing basic color light gray-brown: f. fuscantaria Kroulikovsky, 1909.

Danger

The species is not endangered in Germany. The species occasionally tends to increase in number in pine stands, for example, 1783 Upper Palatinate, 1836 Silesia, around 1860 on 100 square miles, in Northern Germany, 1892–1895 Baden, 1892–1896 Nuremberg Reichswald destroyed, 1900–1910 northeast German Letzlinger Heide etc.

swell

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Karl Eckstein: The butterflies of Germany, 4th volume, The tensioners and the bear-like butterflies . KG Lutz Verlag, Stuttgart, 1923, p. 52.
  2. ↑ a b c Arno Bergmann: The large butterflies of Central Germany. Volume 5/2: Spanner. Distribution, forms and communities. Urania-Verlag, Jena 1955, DNB 450378411 , pp. 963-966.
  3. ↑ a b Leraut 2009, p. 204.
  4. ↑ a b Forster & Wohlfahrt, 1973, p. 287.
  5. ↑ a b c d Ebert et al. 2003, pp. 513-516.
  6. ↑ a b Heiko Bellmann : The new Kosmos butterfly guide, butterflies, caterpillars and forage plants . Franckh-Kosmos, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-440-09330-1 , p. 226 .
  7. ^ Carl von Linné: Systema naturæ per regna tria naturæ, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis. 10th edition, Stockholm 1758 Online at SUB Göttingen (description of the type p. 520).
  8. ↑ Red Lists

literature

  • Günter Ebert (Ed.): The butterflies of Baden-Württemberg. Volume 9 (Spanner (Geometridae) 2nd part), Nachtfalter VII. Ulmer Verlag, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-8001-3279-6 .
  • Walter Forster , Theodor A. Wohlfahrt : The butterflies of Central Europe. Volume 5: Spanner. (Geometridae). Franckh'sche Verlagshandlung, Stuttgart 1981, ISBN 3-440-04951-5 .
  • Patrice Leraut: Geometrid moths . In: Moths of Europe . 1st edition. Volume II. NAP Editions, 2009, ISBN 978-2-913688-09-4 (English).

Web links

Commons : Pine moth ( Bupalus piniaria )  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: Kiefernspanner  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations