Swallowtail (butterfly)

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dovetail
Swallowtail (Papilio machaon)

Swallowtail ( Papilio machaon )

Systematics
Class : Insects (Insecta)
Order : Butterflies (Lepidoptera)
Family : Knight Butterfly (Papilionidae)
Subfamily : Papilioninae
Genre : Papilio
Type : dovetail
Scientific name
Papilio machaon
Linnaeus , 1758

The swallowtail ( Papilio machaon ) is a butterfly from the family of the knightly butterflies (Papilionidae). The specific epithet is derived from Machaon , a healer from Greek mythology .

description

Wing underside

The swallowtail is next to the sail butterfly one of the largest and most conspicuous butterflies in the German-speaking area and has a wingspan of 50 to 75 millimeters. It is patterned yellow and black with a blue band and red eye-spots on the inner back of the hind wings. Short, mostly black “tails” protrude from the hind wings. He has long hair on his front legs that serve as a cleaning comb.

pairing

The second generation of a year differs from the first by strong colors and yellow-dusted black drawing elements.

The eggs are spherical and creamy white immediately after being laid. Later they turn brown and before the caterpillars hatch they are lead gray.

Young caterpillar shows mimicking bird droppings
Elderly caterpillar on carrot

The caterpillars are about 45 millimeters long and hairless. Initially they are black with orange-red dots and a white saddle point and show bird droppings . The fully grown caterpillars are green in color and have black horizontal stripes with yellow or orange-red dots. A form of the caterpillar occurs that has a white base color instead of the green one.

Subspecies and forms (selection)

Subspecies:

  • P. machaon gorganus Fruhstorfer , 1922, is the subspecies widespread in continental Europe.
  • P. machaon britannicus Seitz , 1907, is a subspecies restricted to England . It is darker than the continental subspecies and shows no migratory behavior . The distribution is limited to swampy areas near Cambridge and Norfolk , where the caterpillar feeds on swamp hairline ( Peucedanum palustre ).

To form:

  • P. machaon f. niger (Reuti 1898), a very rare form with dark brown to black wings on both sides with blue moon spots.
  • P. machaon f. nigrofasciata (Rothke), rare form in which the yellow marginal moons on the hind wings are missing.
  • P. machaon f. aurantiaca (Speyer), shape with strong yellow to orange-yellow wing color

Similar species

habitat

Papilio machaon lives in one to three generations in sunny and open terrain, such as B. lean grassland and dry grassland . It is only found sporadically on arable land, especially in gardens when carrots , dill and fennel are grown there. The vertical distribution ranges from sea level to the mountains to an altitude of 2000 meters.

Way of life

The eggs are laid on the leaves of the forage plant near the ground. The moths particularly prefer isolated forage plants that stand over open ground and that they can fly directly to.

The caterpillars can be found sporadically on umbellifers ( wild and garden carrots , fennel , dill , parsnip , meadow silge , mountain hairline, etc.), but also on other plants with the same chemical ingredients such as rue and diptame , often in southern Europe the leaves of the citrus plants ( Citrus ). If the caterpillars feel threatened, they turn out an orange-colored neck fork ( osmaterium ) that secretes a scented substance. This defends z. B. ants . If the repeated everting of the neck fork was unsuccessful, the caterpillars flee.

Doll

The caterpillars pupate into green or brown-gray belt pupae. With simultaneous development, pupae rest for 12–19 days in spring and summer, depending on the weather. Caterpillars that pupate in Rhineland-Palatinate from mid-August, i.e. when the day is less than 15 hours, insert a diapause and overwinter as a pupa.

The imagines are known for their hill-topping known (hilltopping) in the spring. At striking elevations such as hills, mountain tops or castle ruins, they sail down the slope again and again in search of sexual partners. In parts of their range, the moths migrate and thus, depending on the climatic conditions, at least temporarily open up new habitats.

Flight time

The first generation flies in Central Europe from April to June, depending on the local climate, the second in July and August and a third in September, depending on the region. Ebert gives the ratio of the adults of the three generations to be 2: 4: 1 for Baden-Württemberg.

distribution

The range of the swallowtail extends over large parts of the northern hemisphere from Europe to Asia and Japan . Several closely related species or subspecies live in North America . The subspecies occurring in Europe - mainly P. machaon gorganus - can be found from North Africa to far north of Europe. In England the species is increasingly rare, however, more frequently in Central Europe. The subspecies P. machaon britannicus , which rarely leaves its biotopes, is restricted to a few swamp areas in England. In contrast, the moths often found on the English south coast between Kent and Dorset belong to the subspecies P. machaon gorganus . They often immigrate from continental Europe and strengthen the local population, which is subject to strong fluctuations, as high losses often occur in winter.

Hazard and protection

Pupation of a caterpillar

  • Pupation begins, the thread is attached

  • The skin bursts

  • The upper part of the doll is already visible

  • Swallowtail butterfly on the Bürglen

Parasitoids

The swallowtail has various parasitoids , some of which only use the species or genus as hosts. These include:

The caterpillar fly Blondelia nigripes is named as another parasitoid .

swell

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Arnold Spuler: The butterflies of Europe . tape 1 . E. Schweitzerbartsche Verlagbuchhandlung, Stuttgart 1908, p. 10 .
  2. ↑ a b c Heiko Bellmann : The new Kosmos butterfly guide. Butterflies, caterpillars and forage plants. Franckh-Kosmos, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-440-09330-1 , p. 120.
  3. ↑ a b Sauer's natural guide - The most beautiful caterpillars , 1992, Fauna-Verlag, ISBN 3-935980-04-3
  4. ↑ Nature in NRW , Schwalbenschwanz; Section: "Special Features";
  5. ↑ a b c Williams, Carrington Bonsor: The migrating flights of the insects. Introduction to the problem of the migration behavior of insects with special consideration of butterflies . Paul Parey, Hamburg, Berlin 1961, pp. 45 f .
  6. ↑ Forms of P. machaon britannicus ( Memento of the original from May 17, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) 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.nhm.ac.uk
  7. ^ A b Lionel G. Higgins and Norman D. Rilley, Die Tagfalter Europäische und Nordwestafrikas (A Field Guide to the Butterflies of Britain and Europe) , Paul Parey 1971, ISBN 3-490-02418-4
  8. ↑ a b c W. Düring: The swallowtail. (PDF) In: Species portraits of butterflies in Rhineland-Palatinate. BUND RLP, September 8, 2018, accessed March 1, 2020 .
  9. ↑ Austrian Species Protection Information System , accessed on January 23, 2016
  10. ↑ Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (Ed.): Red List of Endangered Animals in Germany. Landwirtschaftsverlag, Münster 1998, ISBN 978-3-89624-110-8
  11. ↑ Johannes Voith: Red list and total species list of butterflies (Lepidoptera: Rhopalocera) Bavaria (PDF) In: Red lists of endangered animals of Bavaria from 2016 . Bavarian State Office for the Environment (LfU). See June 7, 2016. Accessed July 23, 2018.
  12. ↑ Günter Ebert, Erwin Rennwald (ed.): The butterflies of Baden-Württemberg, Volume 1, Tagfalter I (Knight butterflies (Papilionidae), Weißlinge (Pieridae), Edelfalter (Nymphalidae)), Ulmer Verlag Stuttgart 1993. ISBN 3-8001-3451- 9
  13. ↑ Nature in NRW , Schwalbenschwanz; Section: "Distribution in NRW"
  14. ↑ Filming VarWild: Papilio machaon; Life cycle of butterflies in Provence . www.filming-varwild.com. Retrieved August 19, 2020.
  15. ↑ R. Reinhardt, H. Sbieschne, J. Settele, U. Fischer, G. Fiedler: Butterflies of Saxony. In: B. Klausnitzer, R. Reinhardt (Hrsg.): Contributions to the insect fauna of Saxony, Volume 6. - Entomological news and reports. Supplement 11. Verlag Bernhard Klausnitzer, Dresden 2007, ISSN  0232-5535

literature

  • Tom Tolman, Richard Lewington: The butterflies of Europe and Northwest Africa , Franckh-Kosmos Verlags-GmbH & Co, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-440-07573-7
  • Hans-Josef Weidemann: Butterfly: observe, determine , Naturbuch-Verlag Augsburg 1995, ISBN 3-89440-115-X

Web links

Commons : Swallowtail  - collection of images, videos, and audio files
Wiktionary: Swallowtail  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations