Actebia praecox
Green mugwort Erdeule ( Actebia ( Actebia ) praecox )
The Green mugwort Erdeule ( Actebia praecox ) even drift sand - herbal -floor Erdeule or Green Erdeule called, is a butterfly (moth ) from the family of cutworms ( Noctuidae ).
Features
The wingspan of the butterfly is 40 to 48 mm. Remarkable are the narrow forewings, which are usually colored grünspanig to gray- green or light green with whitish interference. The transverse lines are kept dark and strongly serrated. Ring and kidney stigma are clearly prominent, whitish edged and filled partially dark. Most striking is the broadened red-brown outer shaft line, but is light green on the Costa. Due to the characteristic drawing style is unmistakable. The hind wings are without markings dark brown.
The caterpillar is light gray, or greenish, has a dark bordered yellow back strip with adjacent showy ornament -like, bright drawings and yellow side ridge lines and a wide, white side stripes. The very slim doll is shiny reddish brown and has a long spine at the cremaster.
Geographical distribution and habitat
The species occurs in Europe and further eastwards across Siberia, Central Asia, Mongolia and China, Korea, the Russian Far East ( Kamchatka, Sakhalin and the Kurile Islands ) to Japan before. The northern distribution ranges in Europe to Scotland, the central Scandinavia and Central Finland. In the south, the range extends to the Pyrenees, northern Italy and the Balkan Peninsula to northern Greece and Turkey to the north. You missing on the Mediterranean islands. The Green mugwort Erdeule is almost exclusively found on sandy terrain, such as dunes, sandy fields, shorelines and sandy heaths.
Way of life
The Green mugwort Erdeule is one generation per year. The largely nocturnal moths fly from July to September and come to artificial light sources. Visit flowers and come to the bait. The polyphagous caterpillars are from September to find in many herbaceous plants, where they can be easily spotted because of its bright color. A selection of food plants includes:
- Field wormwood (Artemisia campestris )
- Creeping willow ( Salix repens )
- Common chickweed ( Stellaria media )
- Wild pansy (Viola tricolor)
- Horn herbs ( Cerastium )
- Birdsfoot trefoil ( Lotus )
Occasionally, the caterpillars were harmful to vegetables asparagus (Asparagus officinalis), which is why they are out in the literature as asparagus pest. They also regarded as murder caterpillars, that is, they attack both in nature, but especially during the breeding cramped spaces, the caterpillars of other species, sometimes even cousins and suck it dry. This behavior is for example also of the caterpillars of the Trapezeule ( Cosmia trapezina ) known. On the day the caterpillars of the Green mugwort Erdeule dig in the loose sandy soil and feed at night. They overwinter and pupate in June in a cave in the earth.
Endangering
The species occurs in Germany preferably in coastal regions, in some areas but disappeared and is on the Red List of endangered species in Category 2 ( high risk ) classified. In Baden- Württemberg it is classified as extinct.