Bluish grayish blue
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Graublauer Bläuling ( Pseudophilotes baton ) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Pseudophilotes baton | ||||||||||||
| ( Bergstrasse , 1779) |
The gray-blue blueness ( Pseudophilotes baton ) is a butterfly ( butterflies ) from the family of blues (Lycaenidae). The specific epithet is derived from baton , the charioteer of the general Amphiaraos from Greek mythology .
features
The moths reach a wingspan of 20 to 25 millimeters. They have light gray-blue wing tops, with a black border and an elongated spot on each wing (males) or black-brown wing tops that are dusted light blue at the base of the wings (females). Both sexes have black and white piebald fringes on the wing edge. The undersides of the wings are colored light blue-gray and have large black spots that are lightly bordered. On the hind wing there is a band of several orange spots, which are lined with black spots on both sides.
The caterpillars are about 15 millimeters long. They are green in their basic color, but have three conspicuously pink-colored longitudinal bands that are whitish at the edges. This coloring not only imitates the color of the flowers of the forage plants, but also the green areas. This makes them practically invisible on the plants.
Occurrence
They are distributed from northern Portugal through northern Spain , France and southern and central Europe. They live at an altitude of 200 to 2,000 meters. In Germany you can only find them in the central and southern parts, they have already disappeared in many places and are very rare. They live on open, rocky terrain in the mountains, especially on sunny scree slopes and on poor grasslands with short vegetation and on sandy areas.
Way of life
The animals live in areas with larger thyme growth. They like to sit there with the wings half open.
The females lay their eggs on the flowers and buds of the forage plants. The caterpillars need a lot of heat and direct sunlight to develop. They overwinter half-grown. They pupate in a yellowish green pupa that has a red stripe on the back. Pupation takes place on the ground between plant parts.
The caterpillars feed on the buds, flowers and unripe fruits of broad-leaved thyme ( Thymus pulegioides ) and other types of thyme , but they are sometimes found on other mint plants .
Flight time
The moths fly annually in two generations from April to June and from July to early September, at higher altitudes only in one from June to July.
Hazard and protection
- Red list FRG: 2 (endangered).
swell
Individual evidence
- ^ Arnold Spuler: The butterflies of Europe . tape 1 . E. Schweitzerbartsche Verlagbuchhandlung, Stuttgart 1908, p. 63 .
- ↑ a b c d e f Heiko Bellmann : The new Kosmos butterfly guide, butterflies, caterpillars and forage plants . Franckh-Kosmos, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-440-09330-1 , p. 148 .
- ↑ a b c Tom Tolman, Richard Lewington: The butterflies of Europe and Northwest Africa . Franckh-Kosmos, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-440-07573-7 .
- ↑ Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (Ed.): Red List of Endangered Animals in Germany . Landwirtschaftsverlag, Münster 1998, ISBN 3-89624-110-9 .
literature
- Manfred Koch : We determine butterflies. Volume 1: Butterfly. 4th enlarged edition. Neumann, Radebeul / Berlin 1966, DNB 457244224 .
Web links
- Lepiforum e. V. Taxonomy and Photos
- www.schmetterling-raupe.de
- Moths and Butterflies of Europe and North Africa (English)
- Pseudophilotes baton in Fauna Europaea
- Pseudophilotes baton inthe IUCN 2013 Red List of Threatened Species . Posted by: van Swaay, C., Wynhoff, I., Verovnik, R., Wiemers, M., López Munguira, M., Maes, D., Sasic, M., Verstrael, T., Warren, M. & Settele, J., 2009. Retrieved February 26, 2014.