Pigeon tail
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Pigeon tail ( Macroglossum stellatarum ) |
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| ( Linnaeus , 1758) |
The pigeon tail ( Macroglossum stellatarum ), also known as a pigeon tail or carp tail , is a butterfly ( moth ) from the family of hawkers (Sphingidae). Its German name is derived from the two-part tuft of hair at the end of the abdomen, which has a certain resemblance to the tail feathers of pigeons . The pigeon tail is known as a migrating butterfly in almost all of Europe . Because of his remarkable flight behavior that as Schwirrflug is called and that of a hummingbird is similar, it will also hummingbird moth called. Numerous supposed hummingbird sightings in Europe go back to observations of this butterfly species.
features
butterfly
The moths reach in the western area of distribution a wingspan of 36 to 50 millimeters with a mass of about 0.3 grams. In the eastern distribution area they become larger and reach spans of 40 to 76 millimeters. The stocky body of the animals is hairy , especially on the thorax, and has about the same gray-brown color on the upper side as the upper side of the forewings. Only at the end of the abdomen does the color get darker. There the animals wear a brown-black, supposedly split tuft of hair; in fact, however, they are elongated scales , with the help of which pigeon tails can control perfectly when navigating in front of the flowers. On the sides of the body there are several whitish tufts of hair, which - especially when viewed from below - stand out from the dark gray and brown underside of the abdomen. The underside of the head and thorax is light gray.
Pigeon tails have gray-brown forewing tops, which are provided with two inconspicuous, narrow, wavy, dark brown bands. These run approximately at the level of the third of the wing; the outer band ends roughly in the middle of the wing. The significantly smaller hind wings are orange-brown and bordered blackish on the outer edge. Their underside is colored similarly to their upper side; but at the base of the wings along the entire inside it is yellowish. The underside of the forewings is completely brown-orange. Light or dark color variants are rarely found in the pigeon tails.
Like almost all swarmers, the pigeon tails also have a long proboscis with a length of 25 to 28 millimeters. The club-shaped, finely scaled antennae , which gradually widen towards the end, are also typical of many species of the family. The compound eyes are light, but have a dark center and sometimes other dark areas. The dark center gives the appearance of a pupil : a "pseudopupil" as can be seen in many complex eyes of living animals, e.g. Sometimes even in plural.
Caterpillars
The caterpillars are 45 to 50 millimeters long and are variable in color. Their basic color is usually green; but there are also brown, red-brown or gray-violet specimens. The head capsule has the same color as the rest of the body. The body of the caterpillars is finely dotted yellowish-white everywhere. They have two longitudinal lines on the sides, a white one roughly in the middle of the body and a yellow one below the brown stigmas . Both lines have a dark halo at the top. The upper line ends shortly before the tip of the anal horn , a pointed horn at the end of the abdomen, which is characteristic of almost all hawk caterpillars. The anal horn is red-violet in young caterpillars, later it is bluish to blue-gray, has a yellow to orange tip and is slightly darkly dotted. The thoracic legs are brown, the belly legs have a pink base, followed by a light and a black area.
Similar species
- Evening primrose hawk , Proserpinus proserpina (Pallas, 1772); The outer edge of the wings is very irregular. The forewings are light, have a broad dark band and are also dark around the outer edge. The caterpillars do not share any similarities.
- Olive-green bumblebee hawk , Hemaris croatica (Esper, 1800); Half of the wings are olive-green, the other half wine-red. The hind wings are strong seal lacquer red. The abdomen is dominated by two purple-red and two light yellow-brown to olive-green, light-colored segments. The caterpillars are very similar, but they lack the lower longitudinal line.
distribution and habitat
Overall spread
The year-round distribution area of the animals extends over the entire east-west length of the Palearctic . The southern border runs from North Africa through the Middle East and Pakistan and along the southern border of China to Japan in the east. The northern limit of distribution cannot be determined exactly, but runs roughly from north of France to the south, to extend south of the Alps across south-east Europe , Turkey , the southern part of Kazakhstan and the northern border of China. The limit is variable because the moths are currently able to successfully hibernate in increasingly northern regions due to global warming. More information about this spread can be found in the section Migratory flights and flight times of the moths .
In addition to the skull hawk ( Acherontia atropos ), the pigeon tail is the only representative of the hawkmoth in the Azores , where very few continental European species occur.
Vertical spread
The moths can be found at all altitudes from sea level to the subalpine vegetation zone . However, the caterpillars live at lower altitudes; they can be found in the lower areas of the montane zone . In the Alps , the moths can be found up to about 1500 meters above sea level, the caterpillars, however, only up to about 1000 meters.
Migratory flights and flight times of the moths
Pigeon tails are migrant butterflies and open up new areas in the summer and winter months through their persistent flight. They occur in summer in Europe up to the far north, in Great Britain , Iceland and in large parts of Russia (in the east to Sakhalin ). In winter their distribution extends in the west as far as Gambia , in Asia sporadically as far as the southern tropical areas such as India and Vietnam .
The animals cover great distances and can cover up to 3000 kilometers in less than 14 days. In Central Europe there are three periods in which the moths are observed more frequently than usual: at the end of June, mid-July and in August / September. Since it is not possible to make any clear delineations with regard to the generations, it can be assumed that animals flying towards them mix with those that develop here. The first two butterflies are those animals that hatched in the warmer south and are flying north. Their offspring do not fly until mid-August. In between, a clear decrease in sighted individuals between July and August can be seen. The sightings naturally decrease significantly towards the cold season. It is not yet known where the moths will go before winter. They either fly back south, which has not been proven, or they hibernate well protected. At least isolated finds of hibernating butterflies speak for this latter assumption, because moths can be observed in all months of the year: be it in winter roosts in protected places (for example in caves, in hollow trunks and also in houses) or on warmer winter days when flying. Accordingly, it can be considered certain that at least some of the moths will also winter successfully in Central Europe. This is e.g. B. for Upper Swabia and the Upper Rhine Plain are well documented.
habitat
The pigeon tail can be found almost everywhere in the open area - like other migrating species of swarms, for example the wind swarms . The only requirement is the presence of enough nectar-rich forage plants. They occur in near-natural areas (e.g. dry grass and meadows) as well as in parks, gardens or in cities on balconies when flowering plants are growing there. Because of this, these conspicuously flying animals can often be observed. Only dense forests are avoided .
The egg-laying places - and the associated occurrence of caterpillars - are rarer, as the moths only lay their eggs in places where both enough nectar plants and caterpillar forage plants grow. This is necessary because the females have to consume nectar again and again during the prolonged oviposition. Ideal reproduction habitats are warm and sunny meadows or the edges of fields and forests with bedrags and abundant flowers.
Way of life
The pigeon tails are - unusual for enthusiasts - diurnal. In addition, they also fly at dusk and sometimes at night, which is documented by isolated catches of light. They are also active on very cloudy days, in rain and at temperatures around 10 ° C. When it is cold, they vibrate while sitting (heat tremors), and in contrast to other swarmers, they do not have their wings spread out, but rather with their wings offset flat over the body. You use every available heat source; For example, they rest on sunlit stones with their wings open and use both the sun's rays and the heat emitted by the stones. On very hot days they rest during the maximum temperature and prefer to fly in the early morning hours and in the evening.
The animals often gather to sleep in the evening. To do this, they usually look for vertical rock surfaces warmed by the sun or the like. The animal collections also serve to search for a partner.
The moths' memory is noteworthy. They return to abundant nectar sources day after day, and they often remain true to their resting and sleeping places for the entire life of the butterfly.
The life expectancy of the adult animals is 3–4 months.
Flight behavior
Like all enthusiasts, pigeon tails are excellent fliers. Their very fast and agile flight is similar to that of hummingbirds: when sucking nectar, they stand in front of the flowers in a whirring flight and suck with their long proboscis, which they roll out as soon as they approach and accurately insert into the calyxes. They are one of the few insects that can also fly backwards. Thanks to their good eyesight, they can perfectly compensate for even the smallest plant movements caused by wind through their flight, so that their position in relation to flowering always remains constant. The flapping frequency of the wings is around 70 to 90 beats per second, the flight speed is up to 80 km / h.
Food of the caterpillars
According to Ebert, the caterpillars in Baden-Württemberg feed exclusively on four of the twelve bed herbs ( Galium ) found there. These are real bedstraw ( Galium verum ), forest bedstraw ( Galium sylvaticum ), meadow bedstraw ( Galium mollugo ) and burdock bedstraw ( Galium aparine ). Weidemann mentioned for the Netherlands continue woodruff ( Galium odoratum ) and madder ( Rubia tinctorum ) than food crops. In general, the caterpillars in the western area of distribution mainly feed on bed herbs, in southern Europe and further south as well as in the eastern area of distribution, however, plants of the genus Färberröten ( Rubia ) are preferred. In addition, you can occasionally find caterpillars on other red plants (Rubiaceae), such as. B. Jaubertia , but also on starfish ( Stellaria ), spurflowers ( Centranthus ), and willowherb ( Epilobium ).
Nutrition of the moths
Due to their flight behavior, the energy consumption of the butterflies is extremely high. With a net weight of around 0.3 grams, you need around 0.5 milliliters of nectar every day. In order to suck up this amount, a corresponding number of flowers must be flown to in a short time. A pigeon tail can therefore suck out up to 100 flowers per minute with compound inflorescences such as umbels or panicles. Depending on the quality of the nectar, for example 1300 to 5000 flowers of the red foxglove ( Digitalis purpurea ) or at least 500 to 2200 of the narrow-leaved willowherb ( Epilobium angustifolium ) have to be flown to the day. The animals use a large supply of food in such a way that they fly short distances and one after the other fly off the flowers of a plant with jerky movements, and then fly on to the next plant, usually of the same species.
The animals are not fussy and fly to the flowers of dozens of plant species. This has the advantage that you can make optimal use of the available nectar sources at any time of the year. However, they prefer nectar-rich flowers with long and narrow calyxes (corolla tubes). With these, the competition from other nectar-seeking insects is less. In laboratory conditions, a preference for certain colors could be seen. Most moths fly after hatching, unaffected by other factors, i.e. genetically determined, predominantly blue flowers, but occasionally also purple and yellow.
In nature, however, the animals fly to flowers of a far greater number of colors. Pigeon tails learn which flowers they can find enough nectar on, so they gain experience with the approach of flowers. In one experiment, hungry butterflies were offered two yellow and two blue paper flowers, only the yellow ones containing nectar. In the beginning the animals instinctively only flew to the blue flowers and ignored the yellow ones, so they did not achieve any success. But when they were offered nectar in the blue flowers, 95% of the experimental animals were motivated by their successes to fly to the yellow ones as well. When blue flowers were set up again without nectar, 80% of the moths only found yellow flowers after 40 flower visits, as they had learned that only these contained nectar. They could also be retrained for others after training on certain flowers. The approach is also reinforced by a background that is very different from the preferred color. These experiments showed that while pigeon tails are superior to other butterflies in terms of their ability to learn, honey bees are inferior to them. The ability to adapt through learning is justified by the fact that pigeon tails have to cover great distances over several climatic zones in the course of their four-month life and have to cope with changes in vegetation.
The moths are genetically determined to be strongly attracted by light with wavelengths in the range of 440 nm (between blue and violet), while the range of 540 nm (yellow) exerts only weak attraction. In a series of tests with light, the brightness of which was varied, it was found that pigeon tails have three color receptors with which they see light in the same spectral range as humans. So far, this has only been proven in very few butterfly species.
In addition to the flower color, the size of the flowers also plays a role. Initially, flowers around 30 millimeters in diameter are preferred. This preference is soon changed through experience, so that flowers with a diameter between 3 and 50 millimeters are approached.
The genera listed below are intended to give an overview of some of the most important nectar plants:
- Clover ( trifolium )
- Flame flowers ( phlox )
- Lilac ( syringa )
- Fuchsias ( Fuchsia )
- Jasmine ( jasmine )
- Adderhead ( Echium )
- Primroses ( primula )
- Snail clover ( Medicago )
- Buddleia ( Buddleja )
- Cranesbills ( geranium )
- Tobacco ( Nicotiana )
- Violets ( viola )
- Verbena ( Verbena )
- Zieste ( Stachys )
The nectar plants include some cultivated plants such as red clover and alfalfa as well as garden and balcony plants such as fuchsias, petunias, pelargoniums, buddleia and phlox.
Mating and laying eggs
The search for suitable sexual partners usually takes place on the sleeping places, i.e. vertical stone or earth walls, which are warmed up by the sun. The males fly these places at high speed until they have discovered a female ready to mate. This sends out pheromones to attract , which can be seen from the protruding pheromone glands on the abdomen. If two partners have found each other, they fly around lively together. Mating takes place while sitting and usually takes less than one hour, in exceptional cases up to two hours. You sit with the body in opposite directions and are coupled to one another at the abdomen. In the event of a disturbance, the copulating can fly together without separating.
After mating, the females go in search of nectar and only then lay their eggs. This usually takes place in the late afternoon. They are looking for suitable plants standing in sunny places and fly close to them in a hovering flight to attach an egg by bending the abdomen. The plants are carefully inspected, branch by branch, before they are laid. Only one egg per plant is laid on young buds that have not yet opened. A total of up to 200 eggs are laid in this way, with interruptions to take in nectar.
development
The eggs of the pigeon tail are almost spherical (0.84 mm high, 0.95 mm wide) and have a shimmering light green color. At first glance, they are reminiscent of unopened buds of forage plants. The caterpillars hatch after six to eight days. They are initially two to three millimeters long and have a slightly transparent yellowish color. The caterpillars start to eat immediately after hatching. They do this initially hidden, later sitting openly at the top of the plant. They do not prefer certain feeding times, but rather eat both at night and during the day. They are soon ready for their first molt . For resting and for moulting, the animals retreat between twigs of the forage plant that are spun together. Only after the first molt do they have the coloration described in the chapter Characteristics of the caterpillar . They keep these until shortly before pupation, before which they then turn red-brown-purple. Sometimes the caterpillars are found in company with caterpillars of the little wine hawk ( Deilephila porcellus ), which has similar habitat requirements and forage plants.
The caterpillar finds early in June, in which the development of the animals may be well advanced, confirm that the moths hibernate at least occasionally in Central Europe. Since no moths have flown in from the south at this time, they can only be descendants of native moths. Caterpillars are found in Central Europe for the first time in June and July. The later caterpillars also come from butterflies that have flown in from the south and lay their eggs mainly in July. The next generation of butterflies will appear in mid-August.
If the caterpillar finds optimal conditions, it will be fully grown and ready for pupation after about 20 days. This takes place either hanging on the lower parts of the forage plant or on the ground between plant parts in a very loose web. The pupa it contains is about 30 to 35 millimeters long and slightly transparent, so that you can guess the finished butterfly before it hatches. It is light ocher in color and has dark brown speckles everywhere. The area between the abdominal segments is light red-brown in color. The spiracles can be seen as dark spots on the side. The proboscis and the feelers are clearly visible integrated into the doll's shell. The proboscis forms a curved bulge on the head side of the doll shell, is colored black and runs unrolled along the belly side of the doll. The eyes are also clearly visible. The end of the abdomen ( cremaster ) tapers to a point and ends with two very closely spaced spines. The puppet rest is about three weeks.
Hazard and protection
The pigeon tail is widespread and common, it is not endangered.
Specialized enemies
The caterpillars of the pigeon tails are attacked by several specialized parasitoids . It is located in the western area of distribution by parasitic wasps ( Amblyjoppa fuscipennis and ischnus migrator ) braconids ( Cotesia glomeratus ) and Tachinidae ( Exorista larvarum and Oswaldia spectabilis ). No parasitoids are known from the eastern distribution area. The females of the enemy lay their eggs on the caterpillars, in which the hatched larvae then develop. Pupation usually takes place on the outside of the previously dead caterpillar.
Naming
The pigeon tail was first described by Carl von Linné in 1758 in the 10th edition of the work Systema Naturae as Sphinx stellatarum :
"S. [phinx] abdomine barbato lateribus albo nigroque variis, alis posticis ferrugineis ... Habitat in Galio, Rubia."
The species name is derived from Stellatae, a synonym of the Rubiaceae family , to which the food plants of the caterpillar belong.
Giovanni Antonio Scopoli described the genus Macroglossum in 1777 . It contains around 80 species that are predominantly found in the tropics and subtropics.
supporting documents
Individual evidence
- ↑ Otto Schmeil: Leitfaden der Tierkunde , unchanged reprint of the 169th edition 1949
- ↑ a b c d Sphingidae of the Western Palaearctic. AR Pittaway, accessed March 2, 2007 .
- ^ Sphingidae of the Eastern Palaearctic. AR Pittaway, accessed March 7, 2007 .
- ↑ a b The pigeon tail. (No longer available online.) Working Group Ornithology and Nature Conservation - AGON Schwerte, archived from the original on April 23, 2009 ; accessed on September 30, 2016 .
- ↑ Günter Ebert: 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 3-8001-8001- 3474-8
- ↑ Life expectancy at tierportraet.ch, accessed on November 2, 2018.
- ↑ WM Farina, D. Varjú, Y. Zhou: The regulation of distance to dummy flowers during hovering flight in the hawk moth Macroglossum stellatarum . In: Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology Vol. 200, Number 2, 239–247 (02/1994)
- ↑ Rolf Reinhardt, Kurt Harz: Wandering Schwärmerarten (skull, curl, oleander and line swarmers) , p. 25f, Spectrum Akademischer Verlag 2nd edition, Heidelberg 1996, ISBN 3-89432-859-2
- ↑ a b c d A. Kelber: Innate preferences for flower features in the Hawkmoth Macroglossum stellatarum . The Journal of Experimental Biology 200, No. 4; 1997: pp. 827-836
- ↑ a b A. Kelber: Color learning in the hawkmoth Macroglossum stellatarum . Journal of Experimental Biology 199, No. 5; 1996: pp. 1127-1131
- ↑ A. Kelber, U. Henique: Trichromatic color vision in the hummingbird hawkmoth, Macroglossum stellatarum L. Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology 184, Issue 5; 1999: pp. 535-541
- ^ Ian J. Kitching, Jean-Marie Cadiou: Hawkmoths of the World. An Annotated and Illustrated Revisionary Checklist (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae). Cornell University Press, New York 2000, ISBN 0-8014-3734-2
literature
- Günter Ebert: The butterflies of Baden-Württemberg. Volume 4: Nachtfalter II. Ulmer Verlag, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-8001-3474-8 .
- Manfred Koch : We determine butterflies. Volume 2: Bears, Spinners, Swarmers and Drills in Germany. 2nd, expanded edition. Neumann, Radebeul / Berlin 1964, DNB 452481929 .
- Hans-Josef Weidemann, Jochen Köhler: Moths, Spinners and Swarmers. Naturbuch-Verlag, Augsburg 1996, ISBN 3-89440-128-1 .
Web links
- www.lepiforum.de: Taxonomy and photos
- www.schmetterling-raupe.de: More photos
- Moths and Butterflies of Europe and North Africa (English)
- Macroglossum stellatarum at Fauna Europaea
- flying pigeon tail at www.vogelstimmen-wehr.de
- Video: Macroglossum stellatarum (Sphingidae) - flight behavior . Institute for Scientific Film (IWF) 1987, made available by the Technical Information Library (TIB), doi : 10.3203 / IWF / E-2850 .
- Video: biology of the pigeon tail . Institute for Scientific Film (IWF) 1995, made available by the Technical Information Library (TIB), doi : 10.3203 / IWF / D-1898 .
- Video: Experiments on the flight of the pigeon tail . Institute for Scientific Film (IWF) 1998, made available by the Technical Information Library (TIB), doi : 10.3203 / IWF / B-2011 .
- Video: Flight behavior and feeding of a pigeon tail in 40 times slow motion
