Lemonia dumi

Males and females

The hawkweed Spinner ( Lemonia dumi ) is a butterfly of the family of meadow moth.

Features

The wingspan of the moth varies between 45 and 65 millimeters. The males are smaller than females. The body is hairy. The wings are brown, much lighter in the female, with lehmgelber means binding, hem and Diskoidalfleck. The antennae are long and dense in the male combed, combed short in the female. The caterpillars are up to 70 millimeters long and have grown thick and walzig dark brown in color, light purple, sparsely yellow-brown hairy with longish jet black spots on both sides.

Occurrence

They come in Central Europe spread, but very local, before, preferably, become less frequent on dry, sunny, unfertilized meadows on moist meadows and are now very rare.

Way of life

The males fly during the day in search of the females. The flight is preferably 10 to 14 clock in the sunshine on open, dry meadows instead and is very fast and erratic. The females sit during the day close to the ground and send out pheromones to attract the males. The life of the imagos is very short.

Flight times and caterpillars

The hawkweed Spinner fly mainly in October and November, often after the first frosts, the caterpillars live from May to July.

Food of the caterpillars

The caterpillars feed mainly on the leaves of hawkweed and dandelions.

Development

The females lay eggs after mating, preferably on several short-stemmed, dry stems from. The eggs are whitish with dark center spot and hibernate. The caterpillars live individually on the ground and pupate in the soil. The dolls are dark brown with two elongated outgrowths on the back behind the Thorakalschild. Sometimes they lie.

Threats and conservation

The species is considered critically endangered and is classified in Category 2 of the Red List of Threatened Species of the FRG. In particular, due to heavy fertilization of meadows, the required habitat rough pasture is lost forever more.

Swell

• W. Forster, TA welfare: Spinner and enthusiasts. Franckh'sche Verlagshandlung, Stuttgart, 1960