Arctornis l-nigrum
Black L ( Arctornis l - nigrum), ♂
The Black L ( Arctornis l - nigrum) is a butterfly (moth ) from the subfamily of Trägspinner ( Lymantriinae ) within the family of cutworms ( Noctuidae ).
- 4.1 Notes and references
- 4.2 Literature
Features
The moths reach a wingspan of 35 to 45 millimeters. They have bright white, slightly translucent acting forewing, where about in the middle, offset from the front edge of each a distinctive black "L" can be seen. Young animals have a turquoise shimmer, newly hatched animals are completely green.
The caterpillars are about 50 mm long. Your body is somewhat flattened and reddish-brown or gray- brown in color with some yellow or orange marbling. The first three segments are heavily overgrown with long rust-red and black hair which makes them appear much thicker than the rest of the body. On the body, growing on the sides and back of the fourth, fifth, ninth, tenth and eleventh segment white tufts of hair. Additionally, the animals have brown hair tuft on the sixth to eighth segment.
♂
Occurrence
The animals are used in almost all of Europe and Asia, east to Japan before. You are lacking in some parts of the Iberian Peninsula, the north and west of Britain and the far north. They live in light, not too old deciduous forests, especially on the edge, on warm slopes and in wet valley bottoms.
Way of life
The females lay their bright green, flat ( twice as wide as high ) and cylindrical eggs on the upper surface of the leaves of forage plants. The caterpillars, which are solitary, hatch in September. In case of danger, they catapult themselves from the leaves by fold her body in the middle to bottom. By their very hairy they can unscathed fall from a great height. They overwinter after two to three molts on the ground in the leaves. They can be found in the following spring before the expulsion of the leaves. At this time, they feed on dry leaves. Later, they often sit freely on leaves. They pupate in late May in loosely spun leaves on their food plants. Your dolls are strikingly colored turquoise green and have black markings.
The caterpillars are oligophagous and feed on the leaves of beech (Fagus sylvatica ), winter -Linden (Tilia cordata), English oak (Quercus robur), Sal - willow (Salix caprea ) and other deciduous trees.
Flight times and caterpillars
The moths fly in one generation from mid-June to mid-August. The caterpillars are found from September and after Überwinterungbis in May of next year. The nocturnal moths, especially the males, can be attracted by artificial light.