Moss green owl moth
| Moss green owl moth | ||||||||||||
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Moss green owl moth ( Polyploca ridens ) |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Polyploca ridens | ||||||||||||
| ( Fabricius , 1787) |
The moss-green owl moth ( Polyploca ridens ) is a butterfly from the family of the owl moth and sickle- winged moth (Drepanidae).
features
The moths reach a wingspan of 30 to 35 millimeters. They have very variable colored fore and hind wings. The forewings have a mostly narrow white serrated band at the base and a very wide dark transverse band in the middle. Within this band there are rings similar to those of the owl moth ( Tethea ocularis ), which are gray but black on the inside. There are also numerous dark and light brown spots. The front wings are more or less pollinated with moss green. The hind wings are white, dark on the edge. The antennae are red-brown.
The caterpillars are about 35 millimeters long and have yellow-green and yellow longitudinal stripes and patterns. On each segment they have a transverse row of many white and a few black points. These may be missing in pale animals. Young animals have very large black spots flowing into one another and are more black than green, older animals have almost no black spots.
Occurrence
They occur in southern and central Europe and in southern England , Denmark , southern Sweden east to western Russia . They live in warm, dry oak forests and deciduous forests with a high proportion of oak and also on heaths . They are not common.
Way of life
Flight and caterpillar times
The animals fly in one generation from late March to early June. The caterpillars are found from May to June.
Food of the caterpillars
The caterpillars eat the leaves of the common oak ( Quercus robur ) but also those of other oaks ( Quercus ). Occasionally they are supposed to feed on their own as well as caterpillars of other butterfly species.
development
The females lay their eggs one by one in the oak buds that can be found early in the year between the individual scales. The nocturnal caterpillars spend the day in two oak leaves that are spun together. They live mainly on young oak bushes or on low branches of older trees. They pupate between the spun leaves and overwinter as a pupa on or in the ground.
swell
Individual evidence
- ↑ Manfred Koch : We identify butterflies. Volume 2: Bears, Spinners, Swarmers and Drills in Germany. 2nd, expanded edition. Neumann, Radebeul / Berlin 1964, DNB 452481929 , p. 122f.
literature
- Heiko Bellmann : The new Kosmos butterfly guide. Butterflies, caterpillars and forage plants. Franckh-Kosmos, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-440-09330-1 .
- Günter Ebert (Ed.): The Butterflies of Baden-Württemberg Volume 4, Moths II (Bombycidae, Endromidae, Lemoniidae, Saturniidae, Sphingidae, Drepanidae, Notodontidae, Dilobidae, Lymantriidae, Ctenuchidae, Nolidae). Ulmer Verlag Stuttgart 1994. ISBN 3-8001-3474-8
- Hans-Josef Weidemann, Jochen Köhler: Moths, Spinners and Swarmers . Naturbuch-Verlag, Augsburg 1996, ISBN 3-89440-128-1
Web links
- Lepiforum e. V. Taxonomy and Photos
- Moths and Butterflies of Europe and North Africa (English)
- Guide to the moths of Great Britain and Ireland (English)
- Polyploca ridens at Fauna Europaea