Acherontia lachesis
Acherontia lachesis
Acherontia lachesis is a butterfly (moth ) from the family of moth ( Sphingidae ), which is widespread in southern and eastern Asia. Like the other two species of the genus Acherontia eat the moths of honey from hives and carry on the thorax the typical skull -shaped drawing. The specific epithet is derived from the goddess of fate, Lachesis, one of the three Fates in Greek mythology.
- 3.1 Flight times and caterpillars
- 3.2 food of the caterpillars
- 7.1 Notes and references
Features
Butterfly
The moths have a wingspan of 100-132 mm and are large and strong. As with the other species of the genus Acherontia the front wings are checkered dark, the hind wings are colored yellow and black, both typical for the genus black bands are very pronounced and washed out. On the upper side of the thorax is typical for the genus skull -shaped drawing. The abdomen bears a yellow rib-like drawing.
Caterpillar
The beads reach a length of 95-125 mm, and then about 15 mm wide. They occur grown in a green, yellow or brownish gray color variant, the latter being the most common. In the first larval instar, the animals have a pale yellow head capsule and an equally colored body. The long, straight Analhorn ends in a double peak. In the later stages of head capsule, body and Analhorn are green. Little by little, pale yellow diagonal stripes form on the side of the body, as pointed tubercles, which arise from the fourth stage. From the third stage, the caterpillars can be out of green -colored, gray or canary yellow. After the fourth molt the head has a glossy finish and is equipped with a few small transparent tubercles, which are surrounded by other very small tubercles. The body tapers from the seventh segment slightly backwards. On the three thoracic segments of the back is extended strip-shaped upward. The body surface is dull and smooth. The long Analhorn is basally broad, tapering slightly at first, the sharp tip heavily. The basal half is slightly down, the second half strongly curved upward, the latter formed by sometimes a complete ring. Its surface is glossy and wears large, conical tubercles.
The brownish gray animals have a black or dark brown head, with a pale brown or white Subdorsalstreifen and another similar strip that separates the face from the chin. These two strips will meet near the apex. Another white Dorsalstreifen runs depending from the crown to the top of the head capsule, the latter has black borders. The body can also be greenish gray in color next to brownish gray, each hair springs from a dark spot, which is edged with yellowish. On the thoracic segments extending at the back a narrow strip of white, the a wide dark Subdorsalstreifen and sides each a wide white strip. The Subdorsalstreifen are each interrupted by fine white bands between the segments. All of these stripes on the thorax are sharply defined. In the second segment there is also a gray-green, saddle-shaped spot, each below the Subdorsalstreifen. On the segments five to eleven we find each an oblique, whitish stripe, bounded violet colors up. The eleventh segment of these strips extends beyond the segment to segment to the twelfth to the base of Analhorns. The latter has the same color as the body, the Torah calf A are black, the abdominal legs are greyish - black. Nachschieber has the body color, however, carries a black triangular drawing on the top of the sidewalls. The stigmata are broad oval and velvety - black, the upper and lower end is highlighted in yellow.
The animals of the green color variant have a green head that wears a broad, glossy - black stripes along the cheeks. Your body is grass-green, with a yellowish sheen and is sporadically dotted dark green on the back of the fifth to eleventh segment. The oblique stripes on the sides of the abdomen are yellow margins and limited wide purple top. The Analhorn is green and has pale green tubercles, also the abdominal legs and the Nachschieber are green. In the yellow animals of the head and the body is strongly colored canary yellow and wears otherwise the same pattern as in the green form.
Doll
The pupa is 57-87 mm long and about 14 mm wide. Their shape is penetrated, of the head is strongly rounded, the probes are shorter than the front legs. It has a dark- maroon, with the back on the segments four to six and the cremaster are almost black. The spiracles are black. The surface of the doll is smooth and shiny, the proboscis is clearly basal and bears on both sides with a series of 12 short, transverse strips, similar to a coarse file. On the sides, in front of the spiracles are located on the ninth to eleventh segment parallel strips, each on a segment directly on the stigma at its greatest, and then become shorter towards the front. The stigma on the second segment is covered by an oblique flap, which arises from the extended front edge of the third segment. The cremaster is broadly triangular in shape, the back side is rough längsgerunzelt. The tip ends in two short teeth, each bearing a bristle.
Occurrence
The species is distributed almost throughout the Orientalis of India, Pakistan and Nepal to the Philippines and from southern Japan and south of eastern Russia to Indonesia. Meanwhile, the type was also successfully established in Hawaii.
Way of life
The moths feed on honey, by penetrating into hives. They lay their wings at rest gable roof -like over the abdomen, which completely obscure this. If the animals are disturbed, they raise the abdomen from the ground, open and lift their wings partially and give whistling noises. The moths are strongly attracted by artificial light.
Flight times and caterpillars
The moths fly according to spread mostly in a, in good conditions, such as in Hong Kong for several generations per year. They occur for example in China, depending on the region between the May and September, however, fly usually only one to two months, such as May-June in Guangdong or in August in Jiangxi and Fujian. In Taiwan, the type flies from April to June in Japan in September, in Russia from August to September and in Hong Kong from March to October, with highlights in April, late July and late August.
Food of the caterpillars
The caterpillars feed on a wide variety of different plants including those from the families of the nightshade family (Solanaceae ), verbena family ( Verbenaceae ), legumes ( Fabaceae ), Oleaceae ( Oleaceae ), Bignoniaceae ( Bignoniaceae ) and Lamiaceae ( Labiatae ). From India potato ( Solanum tuberosum), Natural tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum ), teak ( Tectona grandis) and datura ( Datura ) are coral trees ( Erythrina ), Jasminum, detected as food plants, in Hong Kong, the animals feed mainly on sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas ) Clerodendrum kaempferi and Erythrina speciosa.
Development
The females lay their eggs singly on the underside of the leaves of the food plants. After hatching, the young caterpillars feed initially the eggshell and rest on the underside of leaves on the midrib or a leaf vein. Most cases, the stripped caterpillar skin is eaten after each molt. They sit in rest position typical of moth with characteristic erect front body. If the animals are disturbed, they beat down with its front body and produce clicking noises, which are probably produced by the mandibles. Verpuppungsbereite caterpillars starve for a few days and discolored on the back with the green color purple color variant, otherwise brown. You embark on the search for a suitable place to pupate on the ground and move on with rapid undulations. In this phase, both the Torah and the calf A little stomach legs force to clamp itself. If a suitable Verpuppungsort found, the animals buried in just a few minutes in the soil and produce an egg-shaped, 80 x 40 mm measuring chamber is about 15 inches deep in the ground. The inside of the chamber is smooth, but not lined with silk. The doll is rather sluggish.
Specialized enemies
The caterpillars of Acherontia lachesis are parasitized by the parasitic wasps Amblyjoppa cognatoria and Quandrus pepsoides.
Taxonomy and systematics
The genus name is derived from Acherontia Acheron, one of the five rivers of the underworld in Greek mythology. The specific epithet is derived from the goddess of fate, Lachesis, one of the three Fates in Greek mythology, whose task it is to select what fate the man falls to - they measured the length of the thread of life. Even the names of the two other species of the genus have reference to the Greek underworld: Styx is a river of the underworld, Atropos is another moire.
On the basis of morphological studies of imagos, caterpillars, pupae and caterpillars food plant could be shown that Acherontia lachesis the Schwesterntaxon of the two closely related species Acherontia atropos and is Acherontia styx.
It will become apparent in the genus Acherontia so following relationships:
Acherontia lachesis
Acherontia atropos
Acherontia styx