Hemaris tityus
Skabiosenschwärmer ( Hemaris tityus )
The Skabiosenschwärmer ( Hemaris tityus ) is a butterfly (moth ) from the family of moth ( Sphingidae ). The species is one of the four exclusively diurnal moth species in Europe. The existence of the previously frequent in Central Europe species has been drastically reduced through land consolidation and intensive grassland use their habitats. Its common name wears the type due to the food plants of their caterpillars, which were filed in part earlier in the genre of the Marsh.
- 3.1 Flight times and caterpillars
- 3.2 food of the caterpillars
- 6.1 Notes and references
- 6.2 Literature
Features
Butterfly
The moths reach a wingspan of 40 to 50 millimeters, with an average forewing length of about 22 millimeters. Like other species of the genus Hemaris shows the Skabiosenschwärmer a strong resemblance to bumblebees. The two pairs of wings are mostly transparent, only the outer edge of the forewing, especially towards the wing tip, brown in color. The wing veins are colored brown. The thorax is strongly yellowish brown to olive green, hairy, each located on the sides of a pale yellowish tufts of hair. The abdomen is also very hairy. For thorax toward the coat is pale yellowish, in the middle of it is brown, the back third of the abdomen is yellow and whitish on the sides in the middle. At the end of the abdomen there is a black tuft of hair. In particular, the middle region of the abdomen with brown hairs avails itself sharply, so that in older moths in this area, the dark, shiny metallic color of the body is visible.
The uniformly thickened club-shaped antennae are also dark metallic luster. The species can by very similar bumblebee moth ( Hemaris Fuciformis ) mainly through the entire and unspotted cost Alfeld - distinguished by the much narrower hem at the front wing outer edge and by the different coloring of the Hinterleibsbehaarung - the wingtip field ( the wing leading edge ) enters into forward with the Costa loader be. Newly hatched specimens are difficult to distinguish because their wings are still completely covered with gray scales, but these dissolve already during the first flight. Also the Olive Hummel moth ( Hemaris croatica ) has a certain similarity with the type, but can be well distinguished on the basis of fully colored wings.
Similar Species
- Hummel Olive moth ( Hemaris croatica )
- Bumblebee moth ( Hemaris Fuciformis )
Crawler
The caterpillars are up to 50 millimeters long. They are covered after hatching about three millimeters long and initially with small black dot warts, from which spring from forked black hair. The short Analhorn carries two black hairs at its tip. With age, the body changes color gradually more to green, the Analhorn is violet- red, both sides of the ridge, a pale longitudinal line formed, and appears on the sides of the body on each segment to the stigma of a light brown to violet -colored, slanted seated elongated spot. Fully developed, the caterpillars have a weißlichgrüne color, a purple belly and purple spots on the sides of the body, a short, plump, purple Analhorn and a rough body surface. In addition, other purple spots can be distributed on the body, which occurs especially when caterpillars feed on the marsh with purple spotted stems. These caterpillars are dyed completely purple shortly before pupation.
Occurrence
The Skabiosenschwärmer occurs in almost all of Europe. The range extends to the west of Ireland over central Europe eastwards to Central and East Asia. The type is missing in the far north, on large parts of the Iberian Peninsula, where it occurs only in some mountain areas and in the Northeast, and in the Netherlands, where he is at the same time with the Marsh Fritillary ( Euphydryas aurinia ) extinct due to habitat loss. In eastern Finland the species is also declining because there suitable dry habitats are rare. In Asia, it has spread from the Ural Mountains on the west of Siberia to the Altai Mountains and Tianshan. In South Asia, the spread of Turkey to the north of Iran and the southwestern Syria enough. East of the Altai and Novosibirsk, in the rest of southern Siberia and northeastern China to Tibet, the species is rare. The animals live in meadows, along roadsides and in open forests with abundant blooms fouling, especially on calcareous and sandy soils. You climb into the Alps to about 2,000 meters, in Asia they are known in Kyrgyzstan even up to an altitude of 3,600 meters.
Way of life
The moths are unusual for visionaries, like the other species of the genus diurnal. They are active mainly 10:00 to 15:00 clock and fly on Nektarsuche quickly from flower to flower. Preferred food plants are bugle ( Ajuga ), ground ivy ( Glechoma ), catchflies ( Lychnis ), sage (Salvia ), lung herb ( Pulmonaria ) and scabious ( knautia ). They imitate with their appearance while bumblebees, but are many times more nimble and more active than this. This can be clearly seen during courtship, when pursuing the partners in the wild flight against each other and often spirally skyrocket. The mating, during which the two partners are connected to the body in opposite directions on the abdomen, takes about two hours.
Flight times and caterpillars
The moths fly in northern Europe in a generation from mid-May to mid-June, sometimes until early July. Only occasionally occurs in an incomplete development of their second generation in August. In the south the way flies in two generations from late April to early May and in August. In the mountains of Asia, the flight time varies greatly. In the high mountains of Kyrgyzstan to over 3,000 meters, the type flies the end of June, in the west of Mongolia at 2,000 meters above sea level in mid- May, Altai she flies from July. The caterpillars can be found in northern Europe in June and July, in the rest of Europe May to September.
Food of the caterpillars
The caterpillars feed in North and Central Europe, especially from the ordinary Teufelsabbiss ( Succisa pratensis ) and field scabious ( Knautia arvensis). In addition, Marsh ( Scabiosa ), Labkräuter ( Galium ), honeysuckle ( Lonicera ), snow berries ( Symphoricarpos ), called carding ( Dipsacus ) and catchflies ( Lychnis ) as caterpillars forage crops.
Development
The females lay their 1.1 x 1.0 millimeters in size, spherical, pale shimmering green eggs that are dented on the upper side slightly, singly on the underside of the leaves of the caterpillar food plants from. There are often stored up to six eggs per plant or group of plants. The largely nocturnal caterpillars hatch after about a week. Live almost exclusively on the underside of the leaves and feed on the center rib sitting small holes either side of the selfsame in the sheet. If you disturb the caterpillar during the day, she lets herself fall to the floor, where she is also occasionally be found, if they do not eat. It is noteworthy that the caterpillars develop the same scrim at different rates under the same conditions. Regardless however, they are developed more rapidly than the other crawler enthusiast types.
Pupation takes place in a stable, coarse cocoon between blades of grass tussocks or slightly buried in the ground. The doll is 24 to 27 millimeters long and has the typical form of the genus: a wrinkled, shiny surface, the proboscis extends unrolled along the top of the doll, and the two ends of the doll are conically pointed: The cremaster is flat and triangular, the head end sit two pointed projections. The doll is colored black brown, the transitions between segments are reddish brown. Hibernation takes place as a pupa, the moth emerges in the spring. Parasitoids of Skabiosenschwärmers are not known.
Threats and conservation
Although the Skabiosenschwärmer in the 1960s was often to be found, for example, to the Rhine dams and other wastelands, land clearing and intensive mowing have led to significant population declines. The species is " critically endangered " in Germany in the red list of threatened species as (category 2) classified. In some parts of the country it is considered extinct, so that current occurrence at the Kaiser chair, on the Swabian Alb and Tauberlandpark (Baden- Württemberg) must be designated as refuge areas. For currently known occurrences of the survival of the species often depends on care and maintenance of their habitats.