Scopula imitaria
Reddish Yellow Small tensioner ( Scopula imitaria )
The Reddish Yellow Small tensioner ( Scopula imitaria ) is a butterfly (moth ) from the family of the tensioner ( Geometridae ).
Features
The moths reach a wingspan of 22-26 millimeters ( 1st generation); the next generation is usually much smaller and reaches only a maximum of 18 millimeters. The front edge of the forewing is before the apex bent backwards, the slightly pointed apex. The hind wings are, however, very clearly skipped in the middle of the outer edge. Drawing and coloring are variable. The wings are in the color beige, yellowish or orange to light brown. The transverse lines and hem line are almost always clear, but finely defined. The binding agent is formed clearly somewhat obliquely to the inner and outer transverse line, slightly curved, very slightly wavy and often provided with a distally expiring shadows. Inner and outer transverse line are slightly wavy ( more clearly than the median fillet ). The hind wings have the same drawing, but often lack the inner transverse line. The outer transverse line approximately in the middle shows a tipped outward bulge, following the "tail" of the outer edge. Diskalflecken are almost always formed on the hind wings on the forewing only sometimes available or weak. You are on the hind wings definitely more pronounced than on the fore wings. The Diskalflecke the hind wings sit on the outside of the binding agent or in their "shadow" and on the front wing root forward very clearly moved away before the binding agent.
The whitish egg is pear-shaped. It will take some time after oviposition mottled red. The surface is covered with a number of spiral longitudinal ribs which form an irregular grid pattern.
The caterpillar is relatively long and slender. It varies up to gray in color from red, to yellow. The back line is darker than the ground color, but shows a lighter median stripe. The side ridge lines are hardly developed. Therefore diamond patches are formed and brown spots around the black spiracles. The ventral side has dark brown spots. The head is relatively small and roundish.
The doll is golden brown and has yellow elytra on.
Occurrence and habitat
The distribution of the species is mainly Southern European ( from Portugal to the Balkan peninsula and Greece ) and North African ( from Morocco to Libya). It ranges in the east to Asia Minor and Syria. The moth comes but also in most of France before to the south of the British Isles and Denmark. In southern Germany, single copies were also caught already. In western Ukraine, there is a small isolated occurrences. In Germany there but so far no confirmed evidence for an indigenous population.
In the Middle East, in southern Turkey, Cyprus, Crete and the Greek Islands, the southeastern Nominatunterart is replaced by the subspecies Scopula imitaria syriaca Culot, 1918. This form is less clear bunked with a little less corrugated outer transverse line and a less evident means binding. The color is slightly reddish.
The Reddish Yellow Small clamper is mainly due to warm and dry surfaces in flat and hilly country. In the Mediterranean region it is widespread on sandy and rocky soils, in the maquis, loose oak forests, olive groves and rocky grasslands. In the Alps, he rises to 900 m. In the Mediterranean area, he usually does not rise above 1000 m, in the southern parts of Europe and in Morocco but also up to 1,400 meters altitude. In Western France and Southern England, the species is restricted to the coastal areas.
Phenology and life
The type flies depending on the region in one to several generations per year. In the north of its range ( British Isles ) only one generation is formed, which flies from July to August. Flies only in very warm years also an incomplete second generation. In areas with normally two generations, the moths fly from May to July and August to September. In the Mediterranean, several overlapping generations are formed, the moths can even appear from February to October and fly there.
The caterpillars are polyphagous and eat among other things, Common Clematis (Clematis vitalba ) Ovalblättrigem privet ( Ligustrum ovalifolium ), the ordinary privet ( Ligustrum vulgare), Chaenorhinum origanifolium ( figwort family), Waldgeißblatt ( Lonicera periclymenum ), heather ( Calluna vulgaris ), but also of rosaceous plants such as blackthorn (Prunus spinosus ) and blackberries (Rubus fruticosus ) and a number of other plants.
System
The species was described in 1799 by Jacob Hübner under the name Geometra imitaria first time scientifically. Scopula imitaria is currently divided into two subspecies: the Nominatunterart Scopula imitaria imitaria and Scopula imitaria syriacaria Culot, 1918, which represents the Nominatunterart in southern Turkey, Cyprus and the Middle East.