Garden tiger moth
Brown Bear ( Arctia caja )
The brown bear ( Arctia caja ) is a butterfly (moth ) from the subfamily of the tiger moths ( Arctiinae ).
Features
The moths have a wingspan of 45 to 65 millimeters. The drawing of the wings varies significantly: The front wings are brown with a white großmaschigem mesh pattern and elongated spots emanating from the leading edge. The white pattern may be missing, or the front wings may be almost entirely white. The hind wings are vermilion with large, black or black -rimmed blue dots.
The egg is flattened at the base and white to greenish.
The long-haired caterpillar can grow up to six inches long. It is black with white warts. The hair is dark brown on the back with gray tips on the sides and rust front.
The pupa is dark brown with projecting wing sheaths. The cremaster has bristles with small swellings at the end.
Geographical distribution and habitat
The brown bear is widespread throughout Europe to Lapland in Asia and North America. In the mountains you can find this kind up to a height of 2,000 meters. The brown bear is found in a wide range of habitats. It covers the entire forest ( outdoor and Binnensäume, roadsides, firebreaks, glades and moist forest meadows ), but also the rich shrubbery open countryside. Sites, such as extensively managed meadows, low and high moors, poor grass, dams, roads and riparian margins, derelict and processed agricultural land (parks, gardens and fallow fields ) and sand and gravel pits.
Way of life
The brown bear is only one generation per year, flying moths whose July-September. Due to the nocturnal lifestyle you get the butterflies themselves rarely seen unless at a light source, they always fly. The striking color pattern of the wings serve to warn predators to the Brown Bear. This has toxic hemolymph, whose effect is not fully understood. Ideally, the colors are also to scare predators like the tit a fright: The brown bear sitting on the trunk so that the bird initially sees only the brown spotted side. If he now approaches, the brown bear shows a flash the red color of the hind wings and flies away. So he successfully confused the bird. The eggs are laid in July in the form of large bluish white scrim on the undersides of leaves of the host plants. In August, the caterpillars hatch. The caterpillars of the brown bears feed on many herbs, such as Common Sorrel ( Rumex acetosa ), Rumex dock ( Rumex obtusifolius ), stinging nettle (Urtica dioica), meadowsweet ( Filipendula ulmaria ) and many others, but also feed on shrubs raspberry (Rubus idaeus ), blackberry (Rubus fruticosus aggr. ), Snowball ( Viburnum ), dogwood (Cornus sanguinea ) and honeysuckle ( Lonicera xylosteum ) and others and trees, such as white willow (Salix alba ), ear - willow ( Salix aurita ), goat willow ( Salis caprea ), English oak (Quercus robur). Imagine in danger dead Caterpillars hibernate on the ground in sheltered places. They pupate in the following year, from June to July in a dense, intermingled with hair spun on the ground between stems. The moths emerge from July to August.
Threats and conservation
The brown bear is especially protected by the Federal Nature Conservation Act. He is on the Red List of endangered animal species in the Federal Republic of Germany a kind of early warning. In Baden- Württemberg it is considered endangered ( category 3). In Austria, the species is understood in all parts of the country very much in decline, more than any other butterfly species. The species is regarded as a highly sensitive bioindicator for natural biological communities and as Kulturflüchter.