Hyphoraia aulica
Maid of honor ( Hyphoraia aulica )
The maid of honor ( Hyphoraia aulica ) is a butterfly (moth ) from the subfamily of the tiger moths ( Arctiinae ).
- 2.1 Flight Times
- 3.1 nutrition
- 3.2 Mating and oviposition
- 3.3 Larval development and habits of caterpillars
- 5.1 Notes and references
- 5.2 Literature
Features
The moths reach a wingspan of 34-38 millimeters. They have brown forewings with white spots. Their hind wings are bright orange or ocher yellow with black spots. Your abdomen is alternately black and ocher yellow striated. They see this as similar to wasps ( mimicry ). Around the head they wear a thick fur.
The caterpillars are black and according to age reddish- brown to black, long hair.
Similar Species
- Southern maid ( Hyphoraia testudinaria )
Occurrence
The species is distributed from Central Europe and the temperate zone to the Amur region in the east. In the south it is encountered in the Balkans and the Black Sea. In the north, the spread is sufficient to northern Fennoscandia ( southern Finland and southern Sweden ).
The moths prefer warm, sunny and dry areas with little vegetation such as limestone grassland, gorse heaths and dry, rocky slopes.
Flight Times
The moths fly in one generation from mid-May to July. In Germany a second partial generation is possible depending on the climatic conditions apparently.
Way of life
Nutrition
The caterpillars are polyphagous and feed on various plants such as
- Yarrow ( Achillea spp.)
- Hawkweed ( Hieracium spp.)
- Spurge ( Euphorbia spp.)
- Scabious ( knautia spec.)
- Dandelion ( Taraxacum spp.)
The moths take no food, but live only for mating. The males live for about a week, the females up to one month. During this time, they distribute as many eggs as possible.
Mating and oviposition
The males are in contrast to the female diurnal and find the females by pheromones that discard them. The females sit on the day resting in the grass. They are very slow and thus highly exposed by the load located in the body of the eggs enemies. The weight is indicated by the between the wings heavily sagging body. The more eggs were laid, the more active the animals. This allows them to take their last eggs at greater distances to colonize new areas.
A total of about 400 to 500 eggs are deposited in packages of 50 to 100 piece below leaves. They are small, white and round as a ball.
Larval development and life of the caterpillar
The hatching about ten days after oviposition caterpillars are exposed due to their light weight and long hair to the wind, which contributes to the better distribution of animals. The long hair also protect against predators. During the day they hide under leaves and in addition of them woven rovings. They develop very slowly and molt in the first year six times.
To hibernate they crawl in the ground growing in mosses and lichens, of which they feed in the winter. Your biggest enemy here is the parasitic fungus empusa aulicae that decimate populations or even completely obliterate kann3. Although the caterpillars appear briefly in the spring, but when it gets warmer, they hide themselves in the moss layer. After a further two to three molts they pupate between the plant material in a cocoon.
Two to three weeks after pupation, the moths hatch.
Threats and conservation
The maid of honor has become very rare in Germany and is therefore listed in the Red List of Threatened Animals Germany: Category 1 ( threatened with extinction ).