Poecilocampa populi
Small poplar hen ( Poecilocampa populi ), ♂
The little hen or poplar autumn hen ( Poecilocampa populi ) is a butterfly (moth ) from the family of hens ( Lasiocampidae ). The species is widespread in Central Europe is common and is not endangered. The moths fly, unusual for butterflies, until late autumn.
- 5.1 Notes and references
- 5.2 Literature
Features
The moths reach a wingspan of 30 to 45 millimeters, the forewing length is 12 to 18 millimeters. The front wings are dark gray to blue- black, and have a slightly purple tinge on; the Basalfeld and Costalrand may be reddish-brown occasionally. The front wings show two slightly jagged, off-white to pale yellow transverse lines, which extend to a small spot on the front edge of the wing. The inner transverse line is often hardly recognizable. The basic color of the hind wings is slightly lighter than the forewing. Also on them runs a bright cross- line. The thorax is hairy strong dark and light gray. The neck collar ( Patagia ) is conspicuously colored yellowish.
The females are slightly larger than males and are the threadlike antennae instead combed easy to recognize.
The caterpillars are about 50 mm long and are somewhat flattened. They come in two color morphs. The caterpillars of the bright colored morphs are pale gray-brown, have a dense, dark, very fine dotting and the left and right of the back on each segment a bright spot. The dark morph is dark gray in color and has diamond-shaped back spots, next to those bright spot pairs can be seen. The body color varies depending on the color of the bark on which the animals live. The caterpillars have particularly long on the sides more or less, bright hair.
Occurrence
The animals arrive in Europe from the North of the Iberian Peninsula on Western, Central and Northern Europe over the temperate east Asia to East Asia before. They are missing in the Mediterranean and in northern Scandinavia. They are found from the lowlands to the higher mountains in a variety of habitats, but they prefer moist and light deciduous mixed forests, especially where they occur at the edges and forest paths, as well as verbuschte dry slopes and riparian forests that are surrounded by bushes. But they also occur in parks, avenues and gardens.
Way of life
The imagines how all clucking, no proboscis and die soon after mating and egg-laying. The nocturnal moths are extremely robust and can still fly even at temperatures around the freezing point, and even in light snowfall. You are strongly attracted by artificial light and can thus sometimes attract numerous.
Flight times and caterpillars
The Little Poplar hen flies extremely late in the year; usually only after the first night frost stronger, but which are not a prerequisite for the slip of the moths. The earliest moths fly from the beginning of October; the flight maximum is in November. Depending on the weather, the butterflies are usually detected until the end of November and early December, finds into January tend to be the exception. The caterpillars can be found from April to June, the maximum of occurrence is in May. Pupation takes place mainly from the end of May, beginning of June. The moths are indeed soon developed ready but they still hatch late in the year.
Food of the caterpillars
The caterpillars feed on various deciduous trees and shrubs, without giving preference to a certain type. Among the food crops include poplars (Populus ), such as aspen (Populus tremula ), willow ( Salix), as the goat willow (Salix caprea ), common hazel (Corylus avellana ), silver birch (Betula pendula), Black - alder ( Alnus glutinosa), beech ( Fagus sylvatica), oak (Quercus robur), blackthorn (Prunus spinosa), large-leaved lime (Tilia platyphyllos), pointed maple ( Acer platanoides ), apple tree (Malus domestica), plum (Prunus domestica ) and common ash (Fraxinus excelsior).
Development
The females lay their gray brown and light speckled eggs singly or in small groups to branches of forage crops. Overwinter The eggs and the caterpillars hatch in the spring. During the day, the caterpillars sit perfectly camouflaged in cracks in the bark on the trunks or branches of their food plants and climb until the night to eat up. They pupate in the soil in a very firm, dark gray-brown or the same as the earth -colored cocoon. The doll itself is dark red-brown.