Hypomecis roboraria
Big Beef tensioner ( Hypomecis roboraria )
The Great Cattle tensioner or Large oak tensioner ( Hypomecis roboraria ) is a butterfly (moth ) from the family of the tensioner ( Geometridae ).
- 3.1 Flight times and caterpillars
- 4.1 Notes and references
Features
The Great Cattle tensioner reaches a wingspan 40-57 mm. The forewings have a gray-white ground color and finely dusted blackish. The transverse lines and central shadow on the fore wings are often marked only by black wire lines and dots. The inner transverse line is strongly curved and ends at the inner edge almost to the base. The middle shade is thickened at the inner edge of the wing and the strongly serrated outer transverse line is pronounced more or less brown on bottom hem. The indistinct wavy line runs in a rounded or flat arch and is, together with the outer transverse line on the hind wings on. The hind wings have a distinct black center. The underwings are yellowish gray in color, with a yellow forewing tip and a distinct black spot anterior margin. This feature distinguishes the Great Beef Skewers similar style Hypomecis punctinalis.
The ocher to reddish- brown caterpillars reach a length of up to 50 millimeters. They are built quite strong and have on segments 5 and 11 gray back hump, the segment 6 shows a swelling on the bottom. The head is brown and notched. The caterpillars are resting on the branches of their food plants difficult to detect because they mimic the appearance of small branches.
Subspecies
- Hypomecis roboraria isabellaria Staudinger, 1901
Similar Species
- Ashen beef tensioner ( Hypomecis punctinalis ) ( Scopoli, 1763)
Molding
- Hypomecis roboraria f infuscata Staudinger. Wings black gray, drawing reduced.
- Hypomecis roboraria f melaina Schulze. Wing silky black, almost without drawing.
Synonyms
- Boarmia roboraria
Dissemination
The Great Cattle tensioner is widely used in Europe except the extreme south. It is found from the Iberian peninsula, through western and central Europe to the Urals. The subspecies isabellaria is found in the western Central Asia through Siberia and Mongolia to the north of China. In the south of its range extends through the northern Mediterranean, the Balkans and Asia Minor to the Caucasus. In the north it is found into middle Fennoscandia.
Way of life
The Great Cattle tensioner preferably rich oak hardwood forests in warmer locations. But It is also found in swamp forests, bird cherry -maple forests with old coppice with oak trees in pine-oak forests, fir-beech forests, as well as junipers, orchards, meadows, medium dry grasslands with slope bogs and in urban areas. Among the food plants of the caterpillars include:
- Oaks (Quercus spp.)
- English oak (Quercus robur)
- Elm (Ulmus spp.)
- European beech (Fagus sylvatica)
- Birch (Betula spp.)
- Apples (Malus spp.)
The caterpillars live mainly in the crowns of older oaks and deciduous trees. They overwinter and pupate in May in a slight cocoon just below the surface.
The moths were, inter alia, to the flowers of creeping thistle ( Cirsium arvense ) and the marsh thistle ( Cirsium palustre ) found. You like to fly at light sources.
Flight times and caterpillars
The Great Cattle tensioner is a generation in which flies from late May to early August. The caterpillars can be observed from August. They overwinter and continue their development in the following year in May continued. Occasionally, a smaller second generation is encountered in September.