Leek moth
| Leek moth | ||||||||||
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Leek moth ( Acrolepiopsis assectella ), preparation |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||
| Acrolepiopsis assectella | ||||||||||
| ( Zeller , 1839) |
The leek moth ( Acrolepiopsis assectella ) is a butterfly from the family of Acrolepiidae . The species is considered a pest in agriculture and can cause great damage to onion crops in years with dry and hot summers .
features
The moths reach a wingspan of about 14 millimeters. They have variably dirty light gray, gray-brown and black colored fore wings, on which a characteristic, white, wedge-shaped spot sits in the middle on the inner edge. When the wings are folded, the two spots form a triangle, which can then be easily seen from above. The hind wings are colored light to dark gray.
The caterpillars are seven to eight millimeters long, are light green in color and have a brown head capsule.
Occurrence
The animals are found all over Europe and Asia , east to Japan , but have also been introduced by humans to other parts of the world, such as Hawaii . They live mainly in fields and also in gardens.
Way of life
The crepuscular and nocturnal animals can easily be attracted by artificial light at night.
Flight and caterpillar times
The moths fly in two generations from May to October. Those of the second generations hibernate as adults and also fly in the following spring. The caterpillars are found from late May to June and from August to October.
Food of the caterpillars
The caterpillars mine in the leaves and stems of various types of onions ( Allium ), such as kitchen onions ( Allium cepa ), garlic ( Allium sativum ), chives ( Allium schoenoprasum ) or leeks ( Allium porrum ). They are only very rarely found in the flowers, as they contain saponin compounds that inhibit the growth of the animals.
development
The females stick their cream-colored eggs with a transparent secretion, especially on the whorls of the leaves of their forage plants. Young leaves up to a week old are preferred, but older leaves up to two months old are also eaten. The infestation by the caterpillars can be recognized on the plant by small, light spots and stripes. The feces are also ejected through the hole that the caterpillar used to eat its way into the plant. A total of five caterpillar stages are experienced. Pupation then takes place in a light gray, very coarse-meshed and net-like web on the outside of the forage plant or nearby on parts of the plant or on the ground.
Enemies
A natural enemy of the leek moth is the parasitic wasp Diadromus pulchellus , whose larvae develop as parasitoids in the caterpillars of the moths.
swell
literature
- Thomas Kaltenbach, Peter Victor Küppers: Small butterflies. Verlag J. Neudamm-Neudamm, Melsungen 1987, ISBN 3-7888-0510-2
- University of Hawaii, College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, and Hawaii Department of Agriculture: Knowledge Master
Web links
- www.lepiforum.de: Taxonomy and photos
- Acrolepiopsis assectella in Fauna Europaea