Aglia tau
Nail patch ( Aglia tau) ♂
The nail patch ( Aglia tau) is a butterfly of the family of the peacock moth ( Saturniidae ).
- 5.1 Notes and references
- 5.2 Literature
Features
The moths reach a wingspan of 55 to 85 millimeters, the males are slightly smaller. Their wings are ocher- yellow to dark brown, rarely come before black shapes. The males are much more strongly colored than the females pale. The animals have on each wing a black, dark blue nucleated eyespot, which carries in the middle of a bright, T-shaped " nail patch ". Close to the outer wing edge there is a dark tie. The wing surface between it and the outer edge is dusted partially dark. The antennae of the males are heavily feathered. The wing underside is light reddish brown and hellgräulich. In the middle of the front wing is a broad, brown binding, in a bright nail patch is visible. The edge of the forewing underside is the same as that of the top colored with a, but bright binding. Dark shapes of the nail spot are f ferenigra Th Mieg. and f melaina Gross. The Trauntal has proved geographical boundary for both forms. They are relatively rarely present under the root form and fly in rather higher elevations.
The caterpillars are about 50 mm long. They are colored green and yellow in addition to one side line on their beaded back humps oblique yellowish stripes. They are smooth and plump in her physique. In young stages they wear on the head, two on the third segment and two on the penultimate segment of a very long, slightly toothed extension which is forked at the end. These are dark red, white, dark red in color. Another short, dark red extension sits at the end of the abdomen. These extensions are smaller after each molt and are missing in the last larval stage altogether. The head of the animal is brown and white in color in the first larval stage and green in the following.
Occurrence
The animals come in all of Europe, except the far north of England and parts of the Mediterranean region. You are not in Central Europe rare but are increasingly present in the south and north. They live in deciduous forests, especially with high book content.
Way of life
In contrast to night or night-active females, the males fly in the day in the hectic zigzag flight on the ground around looking for unfertilized females. However, they also fly at night. These attract the males with pheromones that can perceive with their large sensors at long range. These moths have no mouthparts, so they live only a few days.
Flight times and caterpillars
The nail spot flies in one generation from mid- April to May, at the same time as the houses begin to sprout. The caterpillars are found from May to early August.
Food of the caterpillars
The caterpillars feed on especially of beech ( Fagus sylvatica ), but also of goat willow (Salix caprea ), pedunculate oak (Quercus robur), silver birch (Betula pendula) and other deciduous trees.
Development
The females lay their reddish-brown, flat, oval eggs singly, but very close to the part next to one another branches from. The caterpillars build after hatching on the underside of a leaf against a network, where they rest in the eating breaks. They pupate in the soil or in the litter layer or in the moss in a loose, net-like cocoon and overwinter in before they hatch.