Hawkmoth (butterfly)

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Enthusiast
Pigeon tail (Macroglossum stellatarum)

Pigeon tail ( Macroglossum stellatarum )

Systematics
Class : Insects (Insecta)
Order : Butterflies (Lepidoptera)
Subordination : Glossata
Superfamily : Bombycoidea
Family : Enthusiast
Scientific name
Sphingidae
Latreille , 1802
Pine hawk ( Sphinx pinastri )
Little Wine Hawk ( Deilephila porcellus )

The swarmers (Sphingidae) are a family of butterflies . They occur worldwide with about 1200 species , 40 of which are known from Europe , 21 of them live in Central Europe. Their main distribution area are the tropics .

features

butterfly

The moths are small to very large and reach wingspans of 10 to 200 millimeters, in Europe occurring species from 36 to 135 millimeters. Your body is very robust and broad. Their forewings are about two to three times longer than wide and have a characteristic, almost triangular, elongated shape and are very sleek. The hind wings are about the same width as the fore wings, but significantly shorter. They are usually twice as long as they are wide and usually lighter in color than the forewings or have a variegated coloring. There are some species in which eye spots are drawn on the hind wings . The wings of some species are only very loosely scaled, so that in some places they show transparent areas soon after hatching. The forewings have eleven wing veins with one anal vein (1b). The hind wings have nine veins with two anal veins (1a and 1b).

The abdomen ( abdomen ) is pointed and, in many species, conspicuously striped on each segment. Their predominantly thread-shaped, only rarely feathered antennae are short to medium-long and reach about one to two thirds of the fore wing length. In some species they are thickened at the end or halfway through. Their one- limbed maxillary palps are greatly reduced and very small, the labial palps consist of three limbs. The proboscis is fully developed and very long in many species. In the Amphimoea walkeri living in the subtropics , the trunk length is 280 millimeters; up to now no other butterfly species has been discovered with a proboscis longer than this. The trunk of the skull hawk ( Acherontia atropos ) is only about one centimeter long, but very strong. The butterflies can use it to pierce honeycombs in order to suck up the honey it contains . However, some species also have receded proboscis. The animals have no point eyes ( ocelli ) and tympanic organs .

Enthusiasts have large, naked superposition eyes as compound eyes . Winch swarmers z. B. have the enormous number of up to 20,000 ommatidia in each eye. These enable them to see very well in the dark. In addition, the eyes have a retinatracheal tapetum , which reflects the light in the eye again and increases the light intensity. As a result, when approaching a light source, the light is reflected in the eyes in such a way that it can be recognized as a glow. Two lines of development of the hawkers, including the skull hawk and relatives (Acherontini tribe) have developed "ears" ( tympanic organs ). The labial probe is sound-absorbing in both cases. The biological meaning of this structure, which only works effectively in a narrow frequency range, is the detection of locating sounds from bats.

Caterpillar

The caterpillars have either a uniformly cylindrical body or a strongly tapered body. It has a head capsule, which consists of six sclerotized plates that are fused together , and 13 body segments. In addition to the thoracic legs , all four pairs of abdominal legs and the pusher are formed. The thoracic legs end in sharp claws, the abdominal legs have a simple, semicircular series of chitin claws. The head is oval, rounded or triangular, whereby it is usually spherical in the first stage. The front plate ( clypeus ) is triangular. On each side of the head there are six point eyes ( stemmata ) at the base of the cheeks and the gula, just above the antennae bases . The simple point eyes are round and curved outwards. The tripartite antennae are at the base of the cheeks. All three segments can be retracted telescopically. The strong, blunted mandibles are grooved. The anal horn on the eighth segment of the abdomen is a clear defining feature. In some species, however, it can regress in the last stage and is then only recognizable as a short tubercle or flat button-shaped elevation.

The body of the caterpillar is usually smooth and has only sparse, fine secondary bristles. In the Sphinginae there are also species in which the caterpillars have raised oblique grooves that are flanked with small tubercles. The color and pattern of the caterpillars are not only very different from species to species, but also within the same species. The caterpillars of some species have eye spots , which they present in combination with the straightening of the upper body when disturbed. Types such as B. Eumorpha labruscae imitate the appearance of small snakes with this defense behavior . Most of the caterpillars are colored in camouflage colors and try to attract as little attention as possible.

egg

The eggs of the swarmers are green or yellow in most species freshly laid. They are deposited on the food plants with a waterproof, sticky secretion that can change the color of some species. Only in a very few species are they patterned. The green eggs from Rethera komarovi have a white ring. The average thick, transparent egg shell ( chorion ) changes color to gray or yellow shortly before hatching due to the translucent caterpillar body. The eggshell has a smooth and shiny surface. A network-like surface structure can only be seen in some species when the microscope is highly magnified. The eggs are either spherical or slightly flattened dorso-ventrally and thus oval. The micropyle is on the side. The size of the eggs is often clearly disproportionate to the size of the moth later. The relatively large swarmers ( Agrius convolvuli ) and the much smaller pigeon tail ( Macroglossum stellatarum ) have eggs, both of which have a diameter of about one millimeter. The eggs of the family, which are two to three millimeters long, are the largest of those species whose imagines can not eat, such as the oak hawk ( Marumba quercus ).

Way of life

Windswarmers sucking nectar
Privet hawk caterpillar ( Sphinx ligustri ), the anal horn clearly visible
Bumble bee ( Hemaris fuciformis )
Middle hawk caterpillar
Bead of spurge hornworm ( Hyles euphorbiae )
Tobacco hawk caterpillars ( Manduca sexta ) in frightened position

Most species of swarmers are nocturnal or crepuscular. A few, such as B. the pigeon tail ( Macroglossum stellatarum ), are diurnal. The species that have developed proboscis suck nectar from flowers. To do this, they land on the flowers, for example, or fly quickly from flower to flower in the characteristic hovering flight and remain in flight while sucking, similar to hummingbirds . Some species can even fly backwards. Reports of hummingbirds in Central Europe can usually be traced back to this family of butterflies, whose species are reminiscent of these birds in terms of their size and how they fly. Not only are they excellent fliers, but they are among the fastest fliers among insects. Windwarmers ( Agrius convolvuli ) z. B. can reach a speed of up to 100 km / h, but their average speed is still 50 km / h, which they can maintain over long distances. The flapping frequency of the wings of the pigeon tail is z. B. about 70 to 90 beats per second, which leads to a high energy consumption; they need about 0.5 milliliters of nectar a day (with a weight of about 0.3 grams). This has to be compensated by a correspondingly high nectar intake. A pigeon tail can therefore suck up up to 100 flowers per minute, and several thousand in a day.

The skull- and-neck hawk can make whistling and shrilling noises by expelling air through a crack in the trunk of a very large suction bubble in the front part of the abdomen. Because they eat honey from beehives, it is believed that these noises mimic those of queen bees and calm the bees. Combined with the smell of the butterfly, which bees are familiar with, it is possible for the butterfly to empty the honeycomb without being disturbed.

In Europe, some species of swarms fly in from the southern, warm regions as migrant butterflies . Thanks to the high airspeed, they can reach northern Europe in just a few days. However, they do not survive wintering.

Pupation takes place in or on the ground, only rarely in cocoons .

development

With the help of all their senses, the females look for a suitable egg-laying site very precisely in order to protect them from enemies and environmental influences. Additional influencing factors, however, are the distance to nectar plants for food supply and the likelihood of attack by predators during laying as well as the urgency with which the female wants to lay her eggs. Only a few species lay their eggs in places other than the host plants. It does happen, however, that the bat hawk ( Hyles vespertillo ) lays its eggs on stones at the base of the plants, or, for example, Rethera komarovi and the pigeon tail occasionally lay their eggs on dead wood that towers over their host plants, lab herbs ( Galium ). On average, one to three and a maximum of up to ten eggs are laid at each egg-laying site. Occasionally, several females lay their eggs on the same branch of the plant. As a rule, the eggs are laid on the protected underside of the leaves. However, there are also species, such as some, whose caterpillars feed on bedstraws, in which the caterpillars prefer to feed on flowers and the eggs are sometimes deposited there accordingly.

The time from laying to hatching varies greatly and is not temperature-dependent for all species. It ranges from three days for the line hawk ( Hyles livornica ) to 21 days for the privet hawk ( Sphinx ligustri ). Unusually, none of the Palearctic species overwinter in an egg or as a caterpillar. Before hatching, the caterpillars are very active and curl inside the egg. In some species, the darker colored mandibles can be seen through the eggshell that is being used to try to bite into the eggshell. After hatching, the caterpillars eat the egg shell partially or completely after a short rest. Then they look for a suitable resting place.

The feeding behavior on the food plants is different. There are species such as the bumble bee ( Hemaris fuciformis ), whose caterpillars sit on the midrib and only eat holes on both sides of it. Others, such as the caterpillars of the oak hawk, eat from the leaf edge inwards. In many species of Macroglossini , the caterpillars eat the flowers of the plants, especially in the early stages. With increasing growth, the caterpillars become exclusively nocturnal in some species and hide during the day either at the base of the plants on the ground or in the dense foliage of the plants. Many of these caterpillars change their body color as they develop from green to brown in order to be better camouflaged when they are resting on the ground or under leaves. In great contrast, some species, such as some of the genus Hyles , feed fairly openly on the plants and show a conspicuous warning color that identifies them as poisonous. The full-grown caterpillars of the Sphinginae rely on their camouflage coloring, with which they are difficult to spot on the leaves of the plants despite their size. They usually sit on the underside of the leaf and only move when they eat or change their position on the plant. The latter prevents you from becoming aware of them when the branches are eaten away. Due to the high demand for food, food shortages can become a major problem, especially in the case of heavily populated food plants. Most of the time, the scarcity leads to migration and the very risky search for a new food crop. Species such as the line hawk, whose caterpillars are more often confronted with this problem because they also colonize desert areas, can continue their development by switching to other, close-by plant species that normally do not belong to the primary food spectrum. They also shorten their development time and pupate as early as possible. The resulting smaller moths are, however, fully developed and fertile.

The temperature is an important factor in the development of the caterpillars. In many species, the caterpillars can be seen sunbathing, especially in cooler weather. This allows them to raise their body temperature by more than 10 ° C above the ambient temperature, which enables them both to accelerate their development and to ensure survival in otherwise unfavorable habitats, such as in northern Europe or in high mountain locations.

The caterpillars go through four to six stages. When they are fully grown, they rest for up to 24 hours and excrete the last remains of the ingested food. They often turn brown or purple in color and then move away, often under cover of darkness, from their food plants in search of a suitable place to pupate.

In many species, the caterpillars stretch the front part of the body upwards in the resting position and curve the head downwards. This behavior gave the family their scientific name, as René-Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur saw a resemblance to the Egyptian Sphinx .

Ecological importance

Depending on the length of the proboscis of some species, there are a number of plants which, with their long flower tubes, are particularly adapted to pollination by these moths. These include, for example, evening primrose species such as the common evening primrose ( Oenothera biennis ), some orchids and species of the genera Adderhead ( Echium ), Petunias ( Petunia ) and Flame Flowers ( Phlox ). Botanists call a certain type of flower that is particularly adapted to pollination by swarmers " sphingophile ".

The swarmers are irreplaceable for the pollination of some plants. A prominent example of this is provided by Xanthopan morganii praedicta . When Charles Darwin saw the flower of the orchid Angraecum sesquipedale from Madagascar with its thin calyxes up to 28 centimeters long in 1862 , he predicted that there must be an insect that pollinates this flower. This prediction by Darwin, who never saw the moth, was confirmed in 1903 when the aforementioned hawk with its trunk up to 25 centimeters long was discovered. That is why he was called praedicta , "the predicted".

Systematics

The family of swarmers is divided into the three subfamilies Smerinthinae , Sphinginae and Macroglossinae . The following species occur in Central Europe:

Subfamily Smerinthinae

Subfamily Sphinginae

Subfamily Macroglossinae

Research history and origin of name

The first English-language source that recognizable Schwärmer described was "Insectorum sive Minimorum Animalium Theatrum" by Thomas Muffet , which was first published in 1634 in Latin and 1658 in English. In 1592 Jacob Hoefnagel published a series of illustrations of hawk species in his work "Archetypa Studiaque Patris". In 1687 the second volume of “Der Raupen wunderbare Vewandelung” by Maria Sibylla Merian appeared in German, the detailed copperplate engravings of eight European enthusiasts with their food plants. Merian also described a number of parasitoids from these swarmers. Her work was also published in Danish, Latin and French between 1713 and 1730. Jan Swammerdam described in his work "Historia Insectorum generalis", which was published in 1669, the moths, caterpillars and pupae of the wind hawk ( Agrius convolvuli ), which he called "Pernix". In the 18th century, numerous other works appeared in different languages, which were more and more devoted to hawk species from Europe. In his four-volume work Insecten Amustigung , August Johann Rösel von Rosenhof described the characteristics, biology and food plants of 15 Central European hawks and also provided very detailed color casts of the butterflies and caterpillars, and Carl De Geer described seven species occurring in Sweden in “Mémoires pour servir à l 'Histoire des Insectes', the first volume of which appeared in 1752 and the second volume in 1771. Until then, the authors gave the animals described vernacular names , but many of them were adopted in the binomial nomenclature established by Carl von Linné and still valid today .

René-Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur used the name "Sphinx" for the first time in 1736 for the caterpillar of the privet hawk ( Sphinx ligustri ). Linné first adopted this name in the first edition of Fauna Suecica in 1746, in which, however, he still used the names according to the old system. In the important tenth edition of " Systema Naturae ", which appeared in 1758, he used the name as a generic name for all enthusiasts who also received a species name ( specific epithet ). In addition to 16 European hawk species, the group also included a number of rams (Zygaenidae) and glass-winged birds (Sesiidae), which were only spun off by Arthur Gardiner Butler almost 100 years later, in 1876 . Pierre André Latreille named the group of enthusiasts for the first time in Sonnini's edition of Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon's "Histoire Naturelle" "Sphingides". This laid the foundation for the family's current scientific name, Sphingidae. At the end of the first half of the 19th century, when the binomial system Linnaeus was established, the first regional faunas appeared, of which the "Lepidopterologica Volgo-Uralensis" by Eduard Friedrich Eversmann from 1844 should be emphasized. It describes 20 species of hawks with distribution in the European part of Russia. After 1850 numerous publications appeared, in particular about enthusiasts of the western Palearctic, Europe, individual European countries, or even smaller regions, of which, apart from the literature that is still current today, for example the works of Lionel Walter Rothschild and Karl Jordan , from 1903 or by Ronald Hodges from 1971 are worth mentioning.

supporting documents

Individual evidence

  1. Sphingidae in Fauna Europaea. Retrieved January 31, 2008
  2. Sphingidae. Lepiforum eV, accessed on March 30, 2008 .
  3. ^ A b N. P. Kristensen: Lepidoptera, Moths and Butterflies, 1: Evolution, Systematics, and Biogeography. Handbuch der Zoologie 4 (35) S. 344ff, Walter de Gruyter. Berlin, New York 2003, ISBN 3-11-015704-7
  4. a b c d e Malcolm J. Scoble: The Lepidoptera: Form, Function and Diversity. P. 325ff Oxford University Press 1995, ISBN 978-0-19-854952-9
  5. a b c Rolf Reinhardt, Kurt Harz: Wandering Schwärmerarten (Totenkopf-, Winden-, Oleander and Linienschwärmer) , Spectrum Akademischer Verlag 2nd edition, Heidelberg 1996, ISBN 3-89432-859-2
  6. David D. Yager (1999): Structure, Development, and Evolution of Insect Auditory Systems. Microscopy Research and Technique 47: 380-400.
  7. a b c d e f g h A. R. Pittaway: The Hawkmoths of the western Palaearctic . Harley Books, 1993, ISBN 0-946589-21-6 , pp. 19th ff .
  8. a b c A. R. Pittaway: The Hawkmoths of the western Palaearctic . Harley Books, 1993, ISBN 0-946589-21-6 , pp. 19 .
  9. Heiko Bellmann : The new Kosmos butterfly guide. Butterflies, caterpillars and forage plants. Franckh-Kosmos, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-440-09330-1 , p. 94f.
  10. The pigeon tail. (No longer available online.) Working Group Ornithology and Nature Conservation - AGON Schwerte, archived from the original on June 26, 2012 ; Retrieved October 10, 2006 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.agon-schwerte.de
  11. ^ Herbert G. Baker & Paul D. Hurd Jr. (1968): Intrafloral Ecology. Annual Review of Entomology Vol. 13: 385-414 doi : 10.1146 / annurev.en.13.010168.002125
  12. a b A. R. Pittaway: The Hawkmoths of the western Palaearctic . Harley Books, 1993, ISBN 0-946589-21-6 , pp. 14th ff .

literature

  • AR Pittaway: The Hawkmoths of the western Palaearctic . Harley Books, 1993, ISBN 0-946589-21-6 .

Web links

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