Short-tailed blue

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Short-tailed blue
Short-tailed Bluebird (Cupido argiades)

Short-tailed Bluebird ( Cupido argiades )

Systematics
Class : Insects (Insecta)
Order : Butterflies (Lepidoptera)
Family : Bluebirds (Lycaenidae)
Subfamily : Lycaeninae
Genre : Cupid
Type : Short-tailed blue
Scientific name
Cupid argiades
( Pallas , 1771)
Wing underside
female
pairing

The short-tailed blue ( Cupido argiades ) is a butterfly ( butterfly ) from the family of blue (Lycaenidae).

features

The moths reach a wingspan of 25 to 35 millimeters. The short-tailed blue is the second smallest blue in Central Europe after Cupido minimus . A short tail on the hind wings is characteristic of the species. The upper wing surfaces of the males are bluish purple, those of the second generation are darker and less purple in color. The wing edges of both wing pairs are edged black and short, lightly fringed. The hind wings sometimes have black marginal spots on the upper side. The females have brown-gray colored wing tops, which are mostly blue-violet dusted. An orange-black point can be seen at the base of the tails on each of the hind wings. The undersides of the wings of both sexes are colored the same. They are colored light gray and have a light blue dusting at the base. Several black, white-edged spots are irregularly distributed on the undersides of the hind wings. In addition, just as on the underside of the forewing, a short black line can be seen in the middle of the wing, but this is narrower on the hind wings. At the edge of the wing there are usually only two, sometimes weakly another, brightly colored orange spots with black front and rear edges. The remaining spots are only indicated by the black areas.

The caterpillars are about ten millimeters long, green in color and have a dark green back line. The caterpillar body tapers at both ends and is hairy white. The caterpillar's head is black and is pulled back into the body when it is at rest. Hibernating caterpillars are pink-brown in color and are reddish-brown in color.

Similar species

Synonyms

  • Everes argiades (Pallas, 1771)

distribution

The animals come from northern Spain through central , southern and eastern Europe to Asia and Japan . They are absent in much of Italy and the south of Greece and Turkey . You can find them up to a height of about 1000 meters. The warmth-loving animals live in meadows and clearings with many flowers.

Way of life

Flight and caterpillar times

The animals fly in two generations from late April to mid-June and from July to August. Sometimes a third generation is also trained. The first generation caterpillars live in September, overwinter and continue their development in April the following year. The second generation caterpillars can be seen from June to July.

Food of the caterpillars

In the literature u. a. the following forage plants mentioned for the caterpillars:

There are also reports of cannibalism among conspecifics.

development

The females lay their eggs on the buds of the forage plants. The second generation overwinters among leaves. In spring, these animals no longer eat, but pupate in a green, long-haired girdle on the underside of the leaf.

Danger

The species shows strong population fluctuations on its north-western edge of the area, which runs through northern Germany. In Germany in the second half of the 20th century it had initially declined sharply almost everywhere and was considered extinct in most federal states; slightly more individual occurrences only existed in the Upper Rhine Plain in Baden-Württemberg and in the Danube basin, then in the Lower Austrian occurrences. Since the end of the 1990s, the species has shown a positive population trend almost everywhere and has since repopulated numerous federal states in which it was previously extinct. It was therefore downgraded in Germany in the Red List from Category 2 (highly endangered) in the Red List 1998 to the warning list in the Red List 2011. In some regions, such as Bavaria, the species is now considered safe. The species is now widespread in many regions of Germany, but it is still absent in the northwestern German lowlands.

swell

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Tom Tolman, Richard Lewington: The butterflies of Europe and Northwest Africa . Franckh-Kosmos, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-440-07573-7 , p. 83 .
  2. ↑ a b c David J. Carter, Brian Hargreaves: Caterpillars and butterflies of Europe and their forage plants . 1st edition. Paul Parey, Hamburg and Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-490-13918-6 , pp. 42 (Original title: A field guide to caterpillars of butterflies and moths in Britain and Europe . Translated by Alexander Pelzer).
  3. ↑ Cupid (Everes) argiades at fauna Europaea. Retrieved May 26, 2007
  4. ↑ Manfred Koch , Wolfgang Heinicke: We determine butterflies. 3. Edition. Neumann, Radebeul 1991, ISBN 3-7402-0092-8 .
  5. ↑ Hans-Josef Weidemann: Butterfly: observe, determine . Naturbuch-Verlag, Augsburg 1995, ISBN 3-89440-115-X , p. 282 .
  6. ↑ Ingmar Landeck, Dirk Donner, Rolf Reinhardt, Werner Renner, Jörg Renner, Jörg Gelbrecht (2012): Increase in frequency of Cupido argiades (PALLAS, 1771) in Brandenburg with an overview of current trends in spreading in neighboring regions (Lepidoptera, Lycaenidae). Märkische Entomologische Nachrichten 14 (1): 1-12.
  7. ↑ Jürgen Hensle (2014): Open your eyes for new species - the two area additional Cupido argiades and Pieris mannii in Germany. Oedippus 28 (Butterfly Monitoring Germany Annual Report 2012): 43-44.
  8. ↑ R. Reinhardt & R. Bolz (2011): Red list and list of total species of butterflies (Rhopalocera) (Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea et Hesperioidea) of Germany. - In: M. Binot-Hafke et al. (Editor): Red list of endangered animals, plants and fungi in Germany. Volume 3: Invertebrates (Part 1). - Bonn (Federal Agency for Nature Conservation). Conservation and Biodiversity 70 (3): 167–194.
  9. ↑ Bavarian State Office for the Environment (editor) (2016): Red list and total species list of butterflies (Lepidoptera: Rhopalocera) of Bavaria - as of 2016 (fourth version). Information sheet, 19th pages. download
  10. ↑ Distribution map for Kurzschwänziger Bläuling (Cupido argiades (Pallas, 1771)) , online portal "Butterflies Germany". accessed on February 24, 2020.

literature

  • Butterflies. 2. Special part: Satyridae, Libytheidae, Lycaenidae, Hesperiidae . In: Günter Ebert, Erwin Rennwald (eds.): The butterflies of Baden-Württemberg . 1st edition. tape 2 . Ulmer, Stuttgart (Hohenheim) 1991, ISBN 3-8001-3459-4 .
  • Paul Sterry, Andrew Mackay: Butterflies , Dorling Kindersley Verlag GmbH, Starnberg 2005, ISBN 3-8310-0670-9

Web links

Commons : Short-tailed blue  album with pictures, videos and audio files