Blue sieve

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Blue sieve
Blue sieve (Zeuzera pyrina)

Blue sieve ( Zeuzera pyrina )

Systematics
Class : Insects (Insecta)
Order : Butterflies (Lepidoptera)
Family : Wood drill (Cossidae)
Subfamily : Zeuzerinae
Genre : Zeuzera
Type : Blue sieve
Scientific name
Zeuzera pyrina
( Linnaeus , 1761)

The zeuzera pyrina or chestnut borer ( Zeuzera pyrina ) is a butterfly ( moth ) from the family of the wood drill (Cossidae).

features

The female reaches a wingspan of 35 to 60 millimeters, while the males only come to about 16 millimeters on average. The wings have a white basic color, on which dark blue-iridescent points are arranged more or less regularly. Two rows of three blue-iridescent dots each can be seen on the thorax . In the male, the antennae are only half combed on both sides, beyond that they are thread-shaped. The females only have thread-shaped antennae.

The caterpillars are about 50 millimeters long. They are colored yellow and have a dark brown head and neck shield. They have dark brown point warts on their bodies from which very fine, short bristles grow.

Subspecies

  • Zeuzera pyrina biebingeri W. & A. Speidel, 1986
  • Zeuzera pyrina pyrina (Linnaeus 1761)

Occurrence

The animals are found all over Europe and inhabit very different habitats. You can find this species in orchards, on the edges of forests , in parks, gardens and relatively young avenues and tree nurseries.

Way of life

Flight and caterpillar times

The nocturnal moths fly from the beginning of June to the end of August, the caterpillar lives from August to June of the year after next.

Food of the caterpillars

The caterpillars feed on the wood of various deciduous trees , whereby they were found in about 150 hardwoods. They often feed on European beech ( Fagus sylvatica ), cultivated apples ( Malus domestica ), buckthorn ( Frangula alnus ), common ash ( Fraxinus excelsior ) and common horse chestnut ( Aesculus hippocastanum ). It is also often found in branches of the white berry mistletoe ( Viscum album ), and in eastern Austria also on the oak mistletoe ( Loranthus europaeus ), which is common there . In general, young plants and thin branches are preferred.

development

After mating, the females lay by her ovipositor the eggs one deep in beef columns of forage crops. The hatching caterpillars can be found from August to April. They bite holes and dig into young trunks and branches. Most of the time, the tree dies as a result, which can cause great damage in orchards. The older they get, the thicker the branches have to be, but the caterpillars always stick to young shoots. At the end of their development, the caterpillar lives in a 30 centimeter long and about one centimeter wide passage that usually runs downwards. At the end of this is the doll's chamber, which is lined with a very loose web. In this chamber they hibernate with the head always pointing downwards. They only pupate in spring. The pupa is very mobile and can move up and down in the feeding tunnel with the help of thorns at the end of the abdomen. To hatch, it crawls up and pierces a plug made of chips and threads at the opening previously gnawed by the caterpillar. The entire development of these animals takes two to three years.

swell

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Heiko Bellmann : The new cosmos butterfly guide. Butterflies, caterpillars and forage plants. Franckh-Kosmos, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-440-09330-1 , p. 62.
  2. ↑ a b Zeuzera pyrina (Linnaeus 1761). Fauna Europaea, Version 1.3, April 19, 2007 , accessed on January 2, 2008 .
  3. ↑ Manfred Koch : We identify butterflies. Volume 2: Bears, Spinners, Swarmers and Drills in Germany. 2nd, expanded edition. Neumann, Radebeul / Berlin 1964, DNB 452481929 .

literature

  • Günter Ebert (Ed.): The Butterflies of Baden-Württemberg Volume 3, Moths I (Root Borers (Hepialidae), Wood Borers (Cossidae), Ram (Zygaenidae), Slug Moth (Limacodidae), Sack Bearer (Psychidae), Window Spot (Thyrididae)), Ulmer Verlag Stuttgart 1993. ISBN 3-800-13472-1

Web links

Commons : Blausieb  - album with pictures, videos and audio files