Phengaris alcon

Gentian - Large Blues ( Phengaris alcon )

The gentian - Large Blues ( Phengaris alcon ), also known as Little Moorbläuling, is a butterfly ( butterfly ) of the family Lycaenidae ( Lycaenidae ).

• 2.1 Flight time

• 3.1 food of the caterpillars

Features

The moths reach a wingspan of 32-36 millimeters. They have blue, light to whitish continuous provided with dark border (male ) or dark brown, the wing roots slightly blue gestäubte (females ) upper wing, whose edge is fringed white. The wing undersides are light gray and have several black, white edged spots. You see the cross - gentian Large Blues ( Phengaris rebeli ) are very similar and form as well as these types depending on the area of ​​distribution and altitude variable wing -colorings of. Therefore, they are difficult to distinguish from each other.

The caterpillars are about 15 mm long. They are brightly colored reddish or yellowish and have a black head. The total coloring acts tarnished a bit dark.

Similar Species

• Cross Gentian Large Blues ( Phengaris rebeli )

Synonyms

• Maculinea alcon
• Lycaena alcon

Occurrence

They occur as far as Siberia and Mongolia from the north of Spain over France, Central and Eastern Europe. To the north, they are missing out on the south of Sweden. To the south is the distribution limit northern Italy or the center of the Balkan Peninsula. In Germany they are found only in the foothills and in some places to the lowlands of northern Germany, such as on the Lüneburg Heath. They are very rare and in many places already gone. The gentian - Large Blues is local in lowland and mountains up to 1000 meters in wetlands such as wet meadows, bogs and heaths to be found; they are found especially in the area of flood flows.

Flight time

They fly in a generations from mid-June to mid-August, but usually by the end of July.

Way of life

The moths live in the immediate vicinity of gentian plants.

Food of the caterpillars

The caterpillars feed on marsh gentian (Gentiana pneumonanthe ), in the Alps and the Alpine foothills they eat occasionally Willow Gentian (Gentiana asclepiadea ).

Development

The females lay their eggs more loosely distributed to the buds, rarely on leaves and stems, forage from. The eggs are white and somewhat flattened. They are clearly visible on the plants and give the appearance of a fungal infection. The caterpillars feed during the hatching in the interior of a plant and feed on the ovary of the seeds and their plants. After two to three molts they eat their way out and fall to the ground. Through the imitation of perfumes and chemical surface structure of their skin they are here of two different types of red ants ( Myrmica Myrmica rubra and ruginodis ) picked up and carried into the nest. By the caterpillars mimic the skin of their host larvae, the ants of the parasitic butterflies be fooled: they keep the caterpillars for their own larvae. By the following spring they live in their nests and are fed by them preferred. They pupate inside the nest. After hatching, the moths do not have much time for the flight, because they have no fragrances, to protect them from the ants. For the affected ant species of parasite infestation in a reduction of the colony can lead, as the preferred feeding of lepidopteran larvae endangered their own offspring. The caterpillars can in turn be attacked within the ants building by the parasitic ichneumon ichneumon living Eumerus. Females lay their eggs in the caterpillar from which it hatched larvae then develop in the caterpillars and kill them.

Threats and conservation

• Red List FRG: 2 ( endangered ). They are strongly dependent not only on occurrence of their food plants, but also to large stocks of red ants in their vicinity. In addition, they are connected by the draining of wetlands, but also by climatic fluctuations at high risk of drought.