Alcis jubata
Alcis jubata, females
The beard lichen beef tensioner ( Alcis jubata ), also Whitish lichens tensioner, bark beard lichen beard lichen - tensioner or tensioner tree called, is a butterfly (moth ) from the family of the tensioner ( Geometridae ).
- 6.1 Notes and references
- 6.2 Literature
Features
Butterfly
The male moth with a wingspan 25 to 30 mm (23 to 28 millimeters ) the females of 28 mm. The forewings of males and females are whitish to whitish gray in color. Inner and outer transverse line are curled, thickened, often nodular in the course. The center line is, however, indicated only by a little elongated black brown spots and in part by a very faint line. Very clearly, the black Diskalfleck and a black costal spot at the front end of the outer transverse line is formed. Further, usually not so sharply defined spots are formed in the apical region of the Saumfeldes. Occasionally, the subterminal line and the wavy line is indicated at least in the front part of the wing. A hemline is usually present on both the front and rear wings like wings. On the hind wings a marked center line is available, also a Diskalfleck. Front and rear wings are dusted more or less dark. Therefore, some copies look very dark.
The males have saw-tooth sensor, the female thread-like sensor.
Egg, caterpillar and chrysalis
The yellow-green egg is elongate oval and has an irregular, fine reticulate surface.
The whitish green caterpillar has a broken black dorsal line and dashed black lines the back side. The side spots are also black.
The sleek, yellow-brown doll has a pointy cremaster with two long spines.
Geographical distribution and habitat
The species occurs from the Iberian Peninsula and the British Isles in the west through central Europe and northern Europe, the northern Balkan Peninsula, Russia, Siberia to the Amur region. In the north, the range extends into middle Fennoscandia. In the Kurile Islands, Sakhalin and Japan Nominatunterart is represented by the ssp.melanonota Prout, 1930. Although the species has a very large area, but it is always rare and very common locally.
The species lives in forests, mainly in older humid mountain forests with a rich man's beard growth. It rises in the Alps at up to 1600 meters.
Way of life
The beard lichen beef tensioner is one generation per year, flying the moth from late June to early August ( to early September).
The moths are nocturnal and come, albeit sparse, to light. During the day they rest in branches or sit on logs with lichen. They also come to the bait. The eggs are attached singly or in small groups of up to 12 units on the stems of old man's beard. The eggs adhere so firmly to the branches that they still remain after the hatching of the caterpillars. A total of about 200 eggs are laid. About two weeks after oviposition slips the little caterpillar. It grows very slowly and sheds its skin two to three times before the start of winter. It is before the winter only 6-8 millimeters long. Early in the spring they come out of hiding in the tufts of beard lichen. However, it runs at the onset of cold weather back to their hideout. In the further course of the spring and early summer it grows only slowly and is only the end of June or early July of age. The caterpillars development thus takes a total of almost 11 months, the three other stages accounts for only about one month. The caterpillar feeds on beard lichen ( Usnea dasypoga or Exceptional Treebeard ( Usnea filipendula ) ) which preferentially grow on spruce, fir and pine. For Brandenburg were mainly in an older work Usnea barbata and Pseudevernia prunastri given as caterpillar food. Skou indicates Alectoria yet. Pupation takes place in a loose cocoon in the beard lichen tufts.
Systematics and Taxonomy
The species was described in 1788 by Carl Peter Thunberg as Phalaena jubata first time scientifically. The type locality is located in Germany. The style was often later to the genus Boarmia Treitschke, 1825 provided ( see, for example ). Today, it is classified in the genus Alcis Curtis in 1826.
The drawing varies little. Leraut (2009) therefore differs only a single form: smoke gray specimens are f as a form obscura Fuchs, called 1875.
Endangering
The beard lichen beef tensioner applicable in Germany as threatened with extinction. The situation in the individual federal states but slightly different. The species is in Saxony, Thuringia, Brandenburg and Mecklenburg- Vorpommern as extinct or lost, in Bavaria as endangered ( category 2) and in Baden- Württemberg as endangered ( category 3). According to Ebert the way in Baden- Württemberg is also threatened with extinction.