Utetheisa ornatrix

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Utetheisa ornatrix
Utetheisa ornatrix.jpg

Utetheisa ornatrix

Systematics
Class : Insects (Insecta)
Order : Butterflies (Lepidoptera)
Family : Owl butterfly (Noctuidae)
Subfamily : Bear Moth (Arctiinae)
Genre : Utetheisa
Type : Utetheisa ornatrix
Scientific name
Utetheisa ornatrix
( Linnaeus , 1758)
Falter by Utetheisa ornatrix
at rest

Utetheisa ornatrix is a moth from the subfamily of the bear moth (Arctiinae).

features

butterfly

The wingspan of the moth is 30 to 44 millimeters. They are colored very conspicuously and vary greatly in color. The narrow front wings are white-pink to bright red and show whitish transverse bars in which there are black points. The hind wings are extensively white to bright red and show a thin black border as well as individual small gray or black spots near the front edge. The head and thorax are whitish and have black dots. The abdomen is white-gray in color.

Egg, caterpillar, pupa

The spherical egg is whitish to yellowish in color.

Adult caterpillars are up to 35 millimeters long, are orange to brown in color and show black horizontal stripes on each segment.

The doll has a glossy black-brown color and has some irregular orange horizontal stripes.

Geographical distribution

The species occurs in North , Central and South America .

Retronecin , the basic body (“necin”) from which most of the pyrrolizidine alkaloids are derived through esterification of the two hydroxyl groups .

Way of life

Utetheisa ornatrix forms one or two generations a year, depending on the occurrence, sometimes generations in continuous succession. The moths fly day and night. When at rest, they put the wings close together in the shape of an arrowhead. The eggs are laid in groups on the leaves of the host plant. The main food crops for caterpillars are Crotalaria species and fern myrtle ( Comptonia peregrina ). Young caterpillars first feed on the leaves and later on the fruits of the plants. A special feature here is that the caterpillars also absorb and store toxic substances from the forage plants. These are pyrrolizidine alkaloids . This makes them inedible for potential predators and protects them from them. It has been observed how bear moths of the species Utetheisa ornatrix , which were caught in spider webs , were cut free again by the spider. Sometimes cannibalism has also been observed in the caterpillars , especially when older caterpillars still need pyrrolizidine alkaloids.

Systematics

Carl von Linné described two species, the pale colored Phalaena ornatrix and the more strongly colored Phalaena bella . Huebner later gave the genus the name Utetheisa . Recent studies by Lafontaine et al. and DaCosta only have Utetheisa ornatrix as an independent species.

swell

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Klaus Roth : The chemistry of a little spinner. In: Chemistry in our time 39, 2005, pp. 72-76, doi : 10.1002 / ciuz.200590010 .
  2. ^ J. Donald Lafontaine, B. Christian Schmidt: Annotated check list of the Noctuoidea (Insecta, Lepidoptera) of North America north of Mexico. ZooKeys 40, 2010 doi : 10.3897 / zookeys.40.414
  3. ↑ Michelle Antoinette DaCosta: Phylogenetic studies of Utetheisa Hubner, the rattle box moth, and other arctiines (Lepidoptera: Noctuoidea: Arctiidae). , University of Minnesota, 2007

literature

  • Charles V. Covell: A Field Guide to Moths of Eastern North America. The Peterson Field Guide Series No. 30, Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, 1984

Web links

Commons : Utetheisa ornatrix  - collection of images, videos and audio files