Drepana falcataria
Heller Sichelflügler ( Drepana falcataria )
The Bright Sichelflügler ( Drepana falcataria ), also called Common Sichelflügler, is a butterfly of the family of Sichelflügler ( Drepanidae ).
- 5.1 Notes and references
- 5.2 Literature
Features
The moths reach a wingspan from 27 to 35 millimeters. They have light brown or white brown to reddish-brown forewings that have a fine regular pattern and dark, fine serrations binding. They have a dark eye-spot in the middle. Under the sickle or the outer part of the wing outer edge they wear a purple shading. From the wing tip passes under the stain to the inside edge wing a significantly curved, dark brown binding. The hind wings are also dyed light brown, but lighter than the forewing. Your pattern is similar to those of the front wings but not so vigorous. In females, the hind wings are white with the same dark patterning.
The caterpillars are about 20 mm long. They are colored green toxic and have a wide brown patterned back and head, which also carries yellow horizontal stripes. Your abdomen is strongly narrowed to a point. Between the second and fifth segment sitting at the back of each brown wart-like bumps pairs. On the green parts separated grow thin white hair. On the brown these are black.
Occurrence
They come in central and northern Europe, south to the Pyrenees and central Italy, east to the Urals before. They live in light and moist deciduous forests with birch and alder stands. In particular, they prefer Au and swamp forests on the edge of bogs, but they also occur in parks and gardens. They are widespread and common.
Way of life
The animals sit on the day on leaves or on tree trunks and fly only at night.
Flight times and caterpillars
The moths fly in two generations from late April to mid-June and early July to late August. The caterpillars from the eggs of the first generation can be found from August to end of October, the second in June of the following year. In favorable years, you can also watch a third, incomplete generations. At high altitudes, the kind flies in only one generation in July.
Food of the caterpillars
The caterpillars feed mainly of black alder ( Alnus glutinosa) and silver birch (Betula pendula), but they also occur in other deciduous trees. They prefer young plants.
Development
The females lay their eggs, each up to 10 pieces lined up on the top side of leaves. The caterpillars bend one sheet to spin and tighten the two edges, thus forming a protective housing, in which they keep hidden during the day. If they have eaten up most of the leaf, they move to the next and build a new home. If they sense danger, they knock on the inside of the housing, thereby producing a ticking sound. They pupate in her journal after they have separated the part of the leaf down to one or two connections from the rest of the sheet. The early generation hatched in the same year, the late fall with the blade to the ground, wintered there and hatch until the next spring.