Lycaena helle
Blue Iridescent - copper butterfly ♂ ( Lycaena helle )
The Blue Iridescent copper butterfly ( Lycaena helle ) is a butterfly ( butterfly ) of the family Lycaenidae ( Lycaenidae ).
- 3.1 Flight times and caterpillars
- 3.2 food of the caterpillars
Features
The moths have a forewing length of only 12 to 14 millimeters. The moths see the small copper butterfly ( Lycaena phlaeas ) quite similar and include with it the smallest fire moths. It owes its name to a blue or violet Schiller, extending the male over the entire wing surface and in the female moths only edge points. The wing undersides of the moths are colored bright orange and show a drawing of black dots and white crescents. The moths that occur in Fennoscandia, have a less pronounced coloration on the upper wing.
Similar Species
- Small Copper ( Lycaena phlaeas )
Occurrence
The Blue Iridescent copper butterfly is a boreal species and comes in Europe only locally in small populations, but with high population density before. The total area of distribution extends from northern and central Europe, Russia and Siberia to the Amur. In Europe, he comes to the east of the French Pyrenees, in the north- western Switzerland, in the south of Belgium, in southern Germany and in Poland before. In Latvia, the species is extinct. They are found up to an altitude of 1,800 meters. They live on wet meadows, usually near lakes, rivers and bogs, with large herds of caterpillars forage crops.
Way of life
The animals fly to the occurrence places with high population density in the heyday of the marsh marigold ( Caltha palustris) and meadow foam herb ( Cardamine pratensis).
Flight times and caterpillars
The moths fly in one generation, depending on the region May to July.
Food of the caterpillars
The caterpillars feed on snakes in Central Europe knotweed ( Persicaria bistorta ), the Fennoscandian eat nodules knotweed ( Persicaria vivipara ).
Development
The female lays her eggs singly on the underside of leaves to feed the plants. The young caterpillars are well adapted by its whitish to pale gray color, feed on the underside of leaves a characteristic pattern and leave a layer of the cuticle left as a window. With advancing age, the caterpillars assume an increasingly green color and then feed on the leaf surface. The dolls are small, whitish - gray and attached to leaves or dry stems. The only Feuerfalterart hibernate dolls Blue Iridescent fire moth.
Threats and conservation
The species is under severe threat from drainage and Verwaldung of wet meadows and some threatened with extinction. That is why it is " Strictly protected " in the Federal Species Protection Ordinance as listed. In addition, the type also enjoys European law special protection status and is listed in Annexes II ( " species of Community interest whose conservation requires special protection areas must be shown " ) and IV ( " Strictly protected species of Community interest ") of the Fauna-Flora -Habitat out of the EU Directive. In Germany it is in the Red List of Threatened Species as critically endangered (category 1 ) listed, in several states the species is already out as extinct.