Little wax moth
| Little wax moth | ||||||||||||
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Little wax moth ( Achroia grisella ) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Achroia grisella | ||||||||||||
| ( Fabricius , 1794) |
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The little wax moth ( Achroia grisella ) is a butterfly from the family of the borer (Pyralidae).
features
The moths have silver-gray, matt-glossy wings and reach a wingspan of 10 to 25 millimeters. The hind wings are dirty gray with a silvery sheen and have long fringed scales on the wing trailing edge. The small wax moth has a pair of tympanic organs in the first abdominal segment on the abdomen, obliquely dorsorostrad . The integument is bare and formed into thin membranous fields - the two tympana and the subsequent thicker conjunctiva - and spans the tympanic basin. The inversely directed scolopal organ - a sensory organ composed of scolopidia - is attached in the middle of the tympanum and pulls towards the kettle top. It probably consists of three sensory cells.
The caterpillars are initially white, later larval stages are grayish. They reach a length of about 30 millimeters.
Occurrence
The little wax moth is an ubiquist with a cosmopolitan distribution. The larvae live parasitically in beehives and, along with the large wax moth ( Galleria mellonella ), are considered pests by beekeepers .
Way of life
The species forms three to four generations per year, the moths fly from April to October. The caterpillars live from September to April. They prefer to develop in abandoned hives or those where the swarm is already weakened. They feed on pollen , honey , beeswax and occasionally on the brood of bees.
Like many other moths, the little wax moth has tympanic hearing organs. However, this ability is not only used to protect bats , but also for gendering. The paired tympanic organs allow hearing in the ultrasonic range from 20 kHz to over 300 kHz, the optimum is in the range between 55 kHz and 80 kHz. This makes it possible to hear both the locating calls of insectivore bats, which are mostly between 20 kHz and 110 kHz, and the calls of the males, which are in the range of 70 kHz to 130 kHz. In contrast to most other butterflies, it is not the males who move towards the females, but rather the males generate calls through a wing movement called wingfanning and the females run or fly towards them. The "wingfanning" is similar to the wing movement during flight, but the amplitude is significantly lower. The males of the little wax moth also give off a sexual pheromone - it consists of 1-undecanal and N-11-cis-octadecanal - but the chemical stimulus is of secondary importance. The orientation behavior is triggered solely by the auditory stimulus, the attractiveness of a male is probably not increased by the release of pheromones. The type recognition is only linked to the pulse rates of the calls.
The moths react to search calls from bats with evasive behavior. For example, female moths do not orient themselves to a simulated bat call with a pulse rate of less than 60 Hz. The female selects the male based on his attractiveness. A male is considered attractive if it calls out loudly, with a high pulse rate and a long asynchronous interval. The asynchronous interval is the slight time lag between the movement of the left and right wing. The female selects the male based on the volume of the call, as it can be assumed that it is nearby and can therefore be reached more quickly. The pulse rate is used to differentiate between predators and males of their own species. The preference with regard to the asynchronous interval is discussed differently in the literature, presumably it is lost during breeding under laboratory conditions, since different selection conditions prevail here than in the natural habitat. The moths hatch at dusk and the males start calling in the immediate vicinity. The females mate with one male each and lay the eggs at the entrance to the beehive. The larvae hatched from the eggs migrate into the beehive and continue their development there.
Since the little wax moth spends most of its development cycle in the beehive, it is considered a pest by beekeepers. However, a healthy colony is able to keep the number of individuals small. Large populations can only develop if the bee colony is already otherwise damaged. Due to its smaller size, the small wax moth causes much less damage in beekeeping than the large wax moth .
In addition to insectivorous bats, natural enemies include the brackish wasp species Apanteles galleriae , various parasitic wasps ( Trichogramma ), Bacillus thuringiensis and a baculovirus .
Systematics
The following synonyms are known:
- Tinea grisella Fabricius, 1794
- Galleria aluearia Fabricius, 1798
- Bombyx cinereola Huebner, 1802
- Galleria alvea Haworth, 1811
- Meliphora alveariella Guenée, 1845
- Tinea anticella Walker, 1863
- Achroia obscurevittella Ragonot, 1901
- Acroia [sic!] Major Dufrane, 1930
- Meliphora alveariella Guenée, 1845
swell
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Björn Ludwar: Behavioral search for the sexual preference of the little wax moth (Achroia grisella). Diploma thesis, Friedrich-Alexander University, Erlangen-Nuremberg, 1999
- ↑ a b c Don Herbison-Evans, Stella Crossley: Achroia grisella (Fabricius, 1794). (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; Retrieved February 4, 2010 . 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 František Slamka: The Common Moth (Pyraloidea) of Central Europe . Ed .: František Slamka. 2nd Edition. Bratislava 1997, ISBN 80-967540-2-5 .
- ^ KT Schütze: The biology of small butterflies with special consideration of their nutrient plants and times of appearance. Handbook of Microlepidoptera. Caterpillar calendar arranged according to the illustrated German Flora by H. Wagner. Verlag des Internationale Entomologische Verein e. V., Frankfurt 1932
- ↑ Ashraf M. El-Sayed: Semiochemicals of Achroia grisella, the Lesser wax moth. Retrieved February 4, 2010 . ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )
- ^ Achroia grisella (Fabricius 1794). Fauna Europaea, Version 2.1, December 22, 2009, accessed February 4, 2010 .
- ↑ a b c d e f g Markku Savela: Achroia Hübner, 1819. Retrieved on February 4, 2010 .
Web links
- Lepiforum e. V. - Taxonomy and photos