Steppe heather cube thick-headed butterfly
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Steppe heather cube thick-headed butterfly ( Pyrgus carthami ) |
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| Pyrgus carthami | ||||||||||||
| ( Huebner , 1813) |
The steppe heather cube thick-headed butterfly ( Pyrgus carthami , syn .: Pyrgus fritillarius ), also steppe heather cube thickhead or steppe heather puzzle butterfly is a butterfly from the family of the thick-headed butterfly (Hesperiidae).
features
The length of the forewings is 16.5 to 18 millimeters. The basic color of the top of the forewings ranges from orange to dark brown. The top of the wings are provided with light, mostly white, elongated spots. They are very clearly developed on the forewings, rather weakly indicated on the hind wings. The submarginal spots are absent or only weakly indicated. The post-disk spots in cells 4 and 5 in the medial band are slightly shifted outwards. On the underside of the wing, the white outer edge is approx. 1 mm wide (without fringes). The brown basic color hardly or not at all reaches the edge of the wing.
The round eggs are slightly flattened above and below. They are pale yellow in color. The surface is covered with strong, from the micropyle emanating, mostly straight or occasionally on slightly curved longitudinal ribs. On the side, shorter longitudinal ribs can intervene. They are usually smaller than the eggs of the other species in the genus Pyrgus , although Pyrgus carthami is the largest Pyrgus species found in Europe .
The color of the caterpillar is somewhat variable depending on the region. In Central Europe, the egg caterpillar is initially greenish, later also gray or gray-brown with a black head. The dung balls are noticeably small (mostly only half the size of the dung balls of the other Pyrgus species).
The pupa is usually thickly bluish with frost. The basic color is light brown to yellow-brown. Except for a black line on the back, the pupae are only faintly drawn.
Geographical occurrence and habitat
The species is widespread in southern and central Europe as well as Eastern Europe. The northern border is formed by deposits in Lithuania . It is absent in the British Isles and the western European coastal regions, as well as in most regions of Italy (apart from the north). In the east the distribution area extends over southern Russia, Turkey, the southern Urals to Turkmenistan and Iran. Pyrgus carthami occurs on steppe heaths and limestone grasslands. The caterpillars need Potentilla cushion on less overgrown soil. It rises in the Alps and in the south of France to around 1,600 m.
Way of life
The species forms one generation per year, the moths of which fly in Central Europe from mid-May to mid-July. The eggs are laid one at a time on the underside of the host plants. The caterpillar feeds on relatively small, drought quite resistant cinquefoils ( Potentilla ) as sand cinquefoil ( Potentilla arenaria ) and Ruddy cinquefoil ( Potentilla heptaphylla ), as well as special Spring cinquefoil ( Potentilla neumanniana ) and star-haired Spring cinquefoil ( Potentilla pusilla ). Potentilla cinerea , Potentilla heterophylla and wire-haired cinquefoil ( Potentilla hirta ) are also mentioned as host plants in the literature . In summer, the caterpillar takes a drying break in different regions, which in the Mediterranean area can last several months. The development only continues after the first autumn rains. The wintering takes place in the penultimate caterpillar stage. Five molts were detected in breeding. Occasionally there are also late-flying moths whose offspring overwinter at an earlier stage.
Systematics
The species is often referred to in the literature as Pyrgus fritillarius (Poda, 1761). However, this name is a nomen dubium, it has been used in the past on five or six different species. To solve this nomenclature problem, de Jong (1987) identified a neotype . This belongs to Pyrgus malvae , Pyrgus fritillarius (Poda, 1761) thus becomes a younger, subjective synonym of Pyrgus malvae (Linnaeus, 1758). The division of the species into subspecies is also controversial. In the past two subspecies were distinguished in Germany, the nominate subspecies in southern Germany and the ssp. septentrionalis Alberti in Northern Germany. Ernst Brockmann pulls the specimens from Franconia and Thuringia to the nominate subspecies and the specimens from West Germany to a ssp. nevadensis Oberthür, 1910, which Tolman & Lewington (1998) simply calls forma . The "forma" or the subspecies nevadensis occurs primarily on the Iberian Peninsula.
- Pyrgus carhami carthami , the nominate form in central and northern Germany
- Pyrgus carthami nevadensis (Oberthür, 1910), West Germany, France, Iberian Peninsula. In western Germany there are transitional forms to the nominate subspecies. This subspecies is characterized by a pale yellow underside. The spots on the forewings are somewhat larger, the spots on the hind wings somewhat stronger than in the nominate subspecies.
- Pyrgus carthami moeschleri (Herrich-Schäffer, 1854). There are different opinions about the distribution of this subspecies. In general, the Southeast European and Eastern European occurrences as well as the transural populations of the subspecies moeschleri are assigned . In Hungary there are supposed to be transitional forms to the nominate subspecies. The subspecies is slightly larger.
So far, no reliable information is available as to which subspecies the populations in Turkey belong to.
swell
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Butterfly monitoring - website by Ernst Brockmann
- ↑ a b Tom Tolman, Richard Lewington: The butterflies of Europe and Northwest Africa . Franckh-Kosmos, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-440-07573-7 , p. 257 .
- ↑ a b Wagner (2006: p. 97/8)
- ↑ Ebert (1993: pp. 505–508)
- ↑ Rienk de Jong: Cutting the Gordian Knot nomenclatural around Pyrgus carthami (Huebner) (Lepidoptera: Hesperiidae). Zoologische Mededelingen, 61 (26): 371-385, Leiden 1987 ISSN 0024-0672 PDF
- ^ Russian Insects
literature
- Wolfgang Wagner: The genus Pyrgus in Central Europe and its ecology - larval habitats, nutrient plants and development cycles . - In: T. Fartmann & G. Hermann (Eds.): Larval ecology of butterflies and rams in Central Europe. Treatises from the Westphalian Museum of Natural History, 68 (3/4): 83–122, Münster 2006 PDF .
- Günter Ebert (Ed.): The butterflies of Baden-Württemberg. Volume 2. Tagfalter II (Augenfalter (Satyridae), Bluebirds (Lycaenidae), Dickkopffalter (Hesperiidae)). Ulmer Verlag Stuttgart 1993. ISBN 3-8001-3459-4
- Tom Tolman and Richard Lewington: The Butterflies of Europe and Northwest Africa . 319 pp., Franckh-Kosmos Verlags-GmbH & Co, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-440-07573-7
Web links
- Art portrait at pyrgus.de
- Lepiforum e. V. Taxonomy and Photos (English)
- Butterfly monitoring
- Fauna Europaea
- Moths and Butterflies of Europe and North Africa