Lithostege farinata
Lithostege farinata
Lithostege farinata, also known as flour or flour -colored Raukenspanner tensioner, [Note 1], is a butterfly (moth ) from the family of the tensioner ( Geometridae ).
Features
The wingspan of the butterfly is 29 to 33 millimeters (or 27 to 33 millimeters). The forewings are uniformly white, whitish gray to light gray. The fringes are white. The hind wings are bright white.
The elongated oval egg is whitish yellow when filing and shows on the surface of small dimples. It darkens and after 8 to 10 days, shortly before hatching of Eiraupen, black and gray.
The gray-brown Eiraupe shows blackish stripe on the back. The head is yellow-brown. After the second molt, a wide, bright side stripes formed. The back has four narrow white lines. After the third and last moult the caterpillar is pale green to yellowish. She is very slim and about 16 millimeters long. On the back there show three brown, fine lines, the middle line is slightly wider. On the side sit two strong wavy lines which narrow partially in each segment incision. The head has at the end of a dark shade.
The doll is 12 millimeters long and has a thickness of 3 millimeters. She is the beginning light brown and shiny, later dark brown with a matte finish. It is dotted vigorously on the back, but otherwise unbeborstet. On the cremaster sit two strong, divergent, pointed bristles.
Geographical distribution and habitat
Lithostege farinata comes from the Iberian Peninsula, about France, about East Germany eastward across Eastern Europe, the Caucasus region to Western Siberia and Central Asia ( Altai, Tian Shan) ago. In the north, the range extends to southern Scandinavia and the Baltic States, as far south as southern Italy and the Balkan Peninsula. 2008, the type is also available in a faunal list for the Southeast. In the British Isles the species has not been established. Ebert gives as a further geographical occurrence Northwest Africa. In the distribution map of the species in the work of Patrice Leraut but neither the presence on the Iberian peninsula nor the presence in northwest Africa are listed. All occurrences are very local. In the older literature still exist evidence for Israel and Egypt. They have been confirmed so far (no longer). Confusion with other Lithostege species can not be excluded. The Tian Shan ( Turkestan ) the nature rises to 1500 to 1600 meters.
The area of the species has declined in recent decades. So the way came up in the 1970s, also in Denmark. There she is no longer detected today. Bergmann ( 1955) evokes the style, for example, nor from Thuringia; where it is considered extinct. In Brandenburg, since the 1990s, again a moderate spread of the species observed. This is probably because there are that many formerly agricultural land remained fallow and therefore the type provided good living conditions.
The species prefers hot dry, open, sandy to loamy- sandy habitats that are a little overgrown. The species is also found in Ruderalgebieten and until such time as they are about to grow again (and the food plants of the caterpillars are gone ).
Way of life
The type is usually one generation per year, flying the moth from late May to early July. Occasionally lie the dolls z.T. even several times, so that the sequence of generations delayed. In breeding some butterflies hatched already in autumn, which could indicate a partial second generation. The moths are nocturnal, during the day they rest in the vegetation, but can be very easily disturbed and therefore often fly during the day over smaller distances. They come at night artificial light sources. The fast-growing, oligophagen caterpillars feed on road - rocket ( Sisymbrium officinale), Ordinary Besenrauke ( Descurainia sophia ), gray cress ( Berteroa incana ), field mustard (Sinapis arvensis), garlic mustard ( Alliaria petiolata ) and field - radish ( Raphanus raphanistrum ). They eat preferably the flowers and young pods. The pupa overwinters usually twice, often more than once.
Endangering
The species is in Germany as " critically endangered " (Category 2) classified. In Germany it is likely originally in some provinces did not occur (eg Baden- Württemberg). But even in the provinces that belong to the original range of the species, such as Brandenburg, Saxony -Anhalt and Mecklenburg- Vorpommern is the critically endangered species or even threatened with extinction or already extinct. In Saxony and Thuringia, the species was most recently demonstrated about 30 years ago, in Hesse about 50 years ago, in Hamburg, Schleswig -Holstein and Lower Saxony over 60 years ago.
Systematics and Taxonomy
The taxon was described in 1767 by Johann Siegfried Hufnagel in the original combination Phalaena farinata first time scientifically. Occasionally, two subspecies are distinguished:
- Lithostege farinata farinata that nominotypical subspecies, in the largest part of the range
- Lithostege farinata bachmutica Prout, 1938, Western Siberia, light brownish forewings
In the Fauna Europaea but the latter subspecies is reunited with the nominotypischen subspecies.