Vanessa Hippomene
| Vanessa Hippomene | ||||||||||||
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Vanessa hippomene by Jacob Huebner |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Vanessa Hippomene | ||||||||||||
| ( Huebner , 1806) |
Vanessa hippomenes is a butterfly of the genus Vanessa from the family of Edelfalter (NYMPHALIDAE), which is found in Southern Africa.
features
butterfly
The male moths of Vanessa hippomene have a wingspan of 40 to 45 millimeters, the female of 42 to 48 millimeters. The wings have a black basic color. On the forewings, an ocher-yellow band runs from the costa from in front of the center to the rear edge, in contrast to an orange band in Vanessa dimorphica , the other representative of the genus found in southern Africa. On the inside, the band is slightly notched several times, the outer edge is continuously convex, it tapers towards the rear. Between the band and the apex there are three rather small spots, the first of which is irregularly shaped and ocher yellow. He touches the second, who, like the third, is round and white. The sensor bulbs are black at the bottom.
An ocher-yellow band runs on the hind wings in the post-disk region, which tapers abruptly at the end. Two rather large black eye spots with a blue sheen are located one behind the other on the inner edge. The one in front is less clear. They have a short tail, as otherwise the species of the genus Antanartia have.
The underside is mixed with ocher brown, dark brown, white, metallic blue and bronze green. The orange band on the upper side is missing on the hind wing, on the forewing it is much paler and rather broader. The drawing of the basal cells on the underside of the forewing is brown or red instead of bluish white or creamy white as in V. dimorphica .
Pre-imaginal stages
The caterpillar is sandy brown, the rear half ashen with black thorns. On each segment, except for the second and the last, there are two dorsal and one lateral pairs of short, black, oblique lines that converge towards the rear. The lines are thin dorsally and thicker laterally. There are only lateral lines on the last segment. The head is ashen dark. A second form is whitish and dorsally blue-gray with a black head. In the middle of each segment is a wide black bar that tapers outwards.
The ocher-yellow tumbler has laterally rust-brown stripes from the abdomen to near the wing pouches.
Subspecies
The subspecies Vanessa hippomene madegassorum ( Aurivillius , 1899) occurs in Madagascar and seems to be rare. The tail of vein 4 on the hind wing is long (about 4 millimeters) and narrow and in the nominate form short (about 3 millimeters) and wide. The bands on top are orange instead of ocher yellow. The sensor pistons are rusty yellow at the bottom.
Similar species
- Vanessa dimorphica ( Howarth , 1966)
- Antanartia schaeneia ( Trimen , 1879)
Geographical distribution and habitat
Vanessa hippomene occurs in South Africa , Swaziland and Madagascar. Vanessa hippomene is rare in South Africa and only occurs in a few places along the coast in lower elevations from the Western Cape ( Knysnal ), Eastern Cape ( Amatolas ) to KwaZulu-Natal and Zululand ( Eshowe ).
Way of life
Vanessa hippomene lives on the edge of the forest. The moths form two to three generations per year, they reach their greatest density from April to May. The caterpillars feed on Laportea peduncularis , Pouzolzia parasitica and Didymodoxa caffra . The moths are shy and hide in the undergrowth when they are disturbed. Sometimes the species is common.
Systematics
The butterfly was first described in 1806 by Jacob Hübner in the collection of exotic butterflies as Hypanartia hippomene . From Boisduval he was in the genus Vanessa asked, but did not contain the species present at that time, but as the peacock and the little fox . After that he was assigned by Rothschild & Jordan with other similar species to the African admirals of the genus Antanartia . Antanartia dimorphica was separated from TG Howarth as a separate species from hippomene in 1966 . Genetic studies by Wahlberg and Rubinoff in 2011 showed that both species are more closely related to the genus Vanessa than Antanartia .
Synonyms
- Hypanartia hippomene , Huebner , 1806
- Vanessa hippomene , Boisduval
- Pyrameis hippomene , Trimen , 1862
- Eurema hippomene , Doubleday , 1848; Trimen 1887
- Antanartia hippomene , Rothschild & Jordan , 1903
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e TG Howarth: Revisional notes on the genus Antanartia (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) . In: Bulletin of the British Museum of Natural History . tape 18 , no. 2 . Adlard and Son, Dorking 1966, p. 21–43 ( online [accessed February 5, 2013]).
- ↑ a b The African butterflies . In: Adalbert Seitz (ed.): The large butterflies of the earth . tape 13 . Alfred Kernen, Stuttgart 1925, p. 228, plate 52 .
- ^ A b Roland Trimen, James Henry Bowker: South-African Butterflies . a Monograph of the Extra-tropical Species. tape 1 . Trübner & Co., Ludgate Hill, London 1887, p. 204–205 ( online [accessed February 5, 2013]).
- ↑ a b Steve Woodhall: The Field Guide of South African Butterflies . Struik, 2005, ISBN 1-86872-724-6 , pp. 138 .
- ↑ Niklas Wahlberg, Daniel Rubinoff: Vagility across Vanessa (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae): mobility in butterfly species does not inhibit the formation and persistence of isolated sister taxa . In: Systematic Entomology . tape 36 , no. 2 . Wiley, April 2011, p. 362-370 , doi : 10.1111 / j.1365-3113.2010.00566.x ( online [accessed January 13, 2013]).
