Poplar Grey
Great head moth ( Acronicta megacephala )
The big-headed moth ( Acronicta megacephala ), formerly often referred to as Aueneule, is a butterfly (moth ) from the family of cutworms ( Noctuidae ).
Features
The moths reach a wingspan from 38 to 45 millimeters. The forewings vary in color from light gray to dark gray to black-gray and black dusted. The root line is narrow, the tornale line is less darker than the Saumfeld. The inner transverse line is drawn in light gray and double, the outer transverse line black, jagged and easily drawn. Between the renal defect and the outer transverse line sits a light gray round spot. It is not developed a means shadow, and the hemline is hardly marked. The ring stain is relatively large, round or slightly oval to elliptical. Also the renal defect is large and outlined in black, however, is limited to the circumference indistinct. The fringes are gray with numerous interneuralen strokes. Totally darkened copy before coming and are not rare. The hind wings are whitish with dark veins in the base color. A center line is occasionally trained, but always weak or dissolved and the row. The hem line is indicated by a row of dots, the fringe is white. The underside of the forewings is dark gray, the underside of the hind wings light gray. On the lower sides of both wings and the center line of the Diskalfleck are visible. Head and thorax are of different shades of gray.
The egg is flattened - conical. The surface has faint, slightly undulating longitudinal ribs. It is light green colored with crimson spots, dots and stripes.
The caterpillar is up to 35 millimeters long and varies widely in color from yellow to various brown tones to reddish. She wears the whole body gray or brown tufts of hair. The head is remarkably large and black striped. On the 10th segment is a large bright yellow spot.
The pupa is reddish brown and has a bristled cremaster on.
Geographical distribution and habitat
The big-headed moth occurs throughout Europe. The only exceptions are small areas in the south of Spain, in the coastal areas of western Scandinavia, northern Scandinavia and northern Russia (approximately up to the Arctic Circle ), some Mediterranean islands (Balearic Islands, Sardinia ), the southern part of Greece (there is, however, an isolated population in the Peloponnese ). More resources are: Northwest Africa, Asia Minor, the Caucasus, Syria and Iran and the European part of Kazakhstan and the Altai.
The animals come in deciduous forests, alluvial forests and forest fringes with bushland before, but also in park landscapes and settlements with avenues, planted with poplars.
Way of life
The big-headed moth is in the northern part of the range one generation, two generations in the south, which usually overlap. In Central Europe, the moths fly from about late April / early May to late August / early September. It is not yet entirely clear whether in Central Europe two generations or only one to protracted generation is formed. The moths are nocturnal, coming to artificial light sources and the bait. The eggs are usually laid singly on the leaves of the caterpillar food plants, rarely in loose groups of a few eggs. The caterpillars are found from June to October. They feed primarily on the leaves of various species of poplar (Populus ), such as aspen (Populus tremula ), black poplar (Populus nigra) and Lombardy poplar (Populus nigra ' Italica ' ). Also willows ( Salix), alder ( Alnus ), birch (Betula ) and oak (Quercus ) are named as caterpillars food plants. The caterpillars pupate in a cocoon under loose pieces of bark solid food trees, where they are frequently encountered at a height between 30 inches and 3 feet above the ground. The pupae overwinter.
Endangering
The big-headed moth is not at risk in Germany.
System
Acronicta megacephala is the type species of the subgenus Acronicta ( Subacronicta ) Kozhanchikov, 1950. This subgenus has been regarded by some authors as a separate genus. Fibiger, et al. (2009) justify the downgrade in the subgenus by pointing out that the kind shares some apomorphic features with the genus Acronicta and Acronicta this would be paraphyletic.