Willow Yellow Owl
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Willow Yellow Owl ( Xanthia togata ) |
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| Xanthia togata | ||||||||||||
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The willow yellow owl or violet yellow owl ( Xanthia togata ) is a butterfly ( moth ) from the family of the owl butterflies (Noctuidae).
features
butterfly
The moths reach a wingspan of 27 to 30 millimeters. They have brown-red to purple spots and ribbons on a yellow base color. Noticeable is a wide, purple band that runs almost parallel to the outer edge. The hind wings are colored whitish. The forehead and neck collar are red-brown, the thorax is yellow.
The head is not drawn in, it is woolly, hairy a little protruding between the antennae. This fine, yellow hair goes over to the thorax, in the front part of which a small longitudinal crest rises with an upturned point. The palps are finely hairy except for the terminal limb. This is short in the willow yellow owl compared to most other species of the genus.
Caterpillar
The caterpillar becomes up to 25 millimeters long. It is dark brown with numerous small, white spots. The neck plate is black with two white stripes. The lightly dotted back line is only faintly visible.
Similar species
The willow yellow owl is similar to the pale yellow owl ( Xanthia icteritia ) and the red beech yellow owl ( Xanthia aurago ).
distribution and habitat
The willow yellow owl is native to the Holarctic , the distribution area includes all of Europe and Central Asia as well as Siberia to the Ussuri . The species is also found in the USA and Canada in their corresponding habitats.
The species is found in locations overgrown with willows or poplars . These include forest edges, floodplains , the rains of wet meadows and grasslands as well as moors , but also dry-warm (xerothermal) locations, e.g. B. the quarries on the Swabian Alb , in which the Sal pasture thrives, or the Pannonian influenced climatic zones of Austria z. B. on the Bisamberg .
Way of life
The moths are nocturnal and are attracted to artificial light sources. Depending on the region, the butterflies do not fly until late summer or autumn. They are univolting , which means that they only produce one generation per year.
The females usually lay their eggs in short rows of up to ten on willow branches , in the recess between the bark and the bud scales of a flower, and more rarely on quivering poplars . The eggs are almost spherical and only flattened in the micropyle area . The brownish caterpillars hatch in early spring. They drill into pussy willow and then fall to the ground with it. The caterpillars are polyphagous and, in addition to willow and poplar leaves, can also feed on other forage plants, usually switching to herbaceous plants , such as the blunt-leaved dock , blackberries or bogberry .
The pupation takes place as with most moths in a cocoon in the soil. This is associated with a relatively long period of rest from the end of May to the end of August. The final pupation only takes place after a prepupa stage that lasts for weeks. The butterflies fly from the end of August to the end of October, sometimes until the beginning of November. The adult butterflies feed on nectar and are attracted with honey or sugary juices.
The caterpillars of the willow yellow owl are parasitized by many parasitic wasps and some species of caterpillar flies .
Danger
The willow yellow owl is not endangered in Germany. However, it continues to lose many breeding opportunities due to the drainage of wetlands, river regulation and the pruning and removal of commercially unusable softwoods through forestry.
Taxonomy and systematics
The willow yellow owl got its scientific species name togata from the toga , a piece of clothing in ancient Rome, which was bordered as toga praetexta with wide purple stripes. Firstdescribed it was by Eugenius Johann Christoph Esper in his in five parts in Erlangen published compilation The butterflies in illustrations after nature with descriptions . The description with an illustration is in Volume IV. The type specimen from the Esper Collection, which is now in the Munich State Zoological Collection , seems to have been lost.
The species is now placed in the subfamily Xyleninae , previously it was in the subfamily Cuculliinae. Earlier, but not valid names for Xanthia togata according to the rules of the ICZN are Xanthia lutea Ström , 1783 and Noctua flavago Fabricius , 1787. Of the seven Xanthia species occurring in Europe , only Xanthia togata belongs to the subgenus Xanthia (Xanthia) .
Individual evidence
- ^ Louis Graeser: Contributions to the knowledge of the Lepidoptera fauna of the Amurland. Berliner Entomologische Zeitschrift, 33, 2, pp. 251–268, 1889, p. 260
- ↑ Heiko Bellmann : The new Kosmos butterfly guide. Butterflies, caterpillars and forage plants. 2nd Edition. Franckh-Kosmos, Stuttgart 2009, ISBN 978-3-440-11965-5 , p. 274.
- ↑ John Eastman: The book of swamp and bog: trees, shrubs, and wildflowers of the eastern freshwater wetlands. Stackpole Books, 1996, p. 224
- ^ WM Saunders: The Canadian Entomologist. Bibliobazaar, 2009, p. 231
- ↑ Malcolm J. Scoble: The Lepidoptera: Form, Function and Diversity. Oxford University Press, 1995, p. 106
- ^ Günter Ebert and Axel Steiner: The butterflies of Baden-Württemberg. Volume 6, Nachtfalter IV, Eugen Ulmer Verlag, 1997, p. 415
- ↑ Eugen Johann Christoph Esper : The butterflies in illustrations according to nature with descriptions. Part IV, Phalaena Noctua, 1, Erlangen 1788, p. 336 (first description)
- ↑ Hermann Hacker: The types of the Noctuoidea (Lepidoptera) described by EJ Ch. Esper (1742-1810) in his "The butterflies in pictures according to nature". Esperiana, book series on entomology, vol. 6, Schwanfeld 1998, p. 20 full text (PDF, German; 191 kB)
- ↑ Michael Fibiger and Hermann Hacker: Noctuidae Europaeae. Volume 9, Amphipyrinae, Condicinae, Eriopinae, Xyleninae (part). Entomological Press, Sorø 2007
literature
- Heiko Bellmann: Butterflies . Naturbuch Verlag, Augsburg 2010 ISBN 978-3-8001-4653-6
- Günter Ebert and Axel Steiner: The butterflies of Baden-Württemberg. Volume 6, Nachtfalter IV, Eugen Ulmer Verlag, 1997 ISBN 3-8001-3482-9
Web links
- Xanthia togata in Fauna Europaea