Xanthia togata

Willow Gelbeule ( Xanthia togata )

The willow Gelbeule or violet Gelbeule ( Xanthia togata ) is a butterfly (moth ) from the family of cutworms ( Noctuidae ).

Features

Butterfly

The moths reach a wingspan of 27-30 millimeters. On yellow ground color they wear red-brown to purple spots and bands. Striking is a wide, purple tie, which runs almost parallel to the outer edge. The hind wings are whitish. Forehead and neck collar are red-brown, the thorax is colored yellow.

The head is not fed, he is woolly, somewhat hairy above between the sensors. This fine yellow pubescence is transferred to the thorax, in its front part a small longitudinal ridge rises with an upward peak. The palps are covered with fine hair down to the end link. This is in the willow Gelbeule short compared to most other species of the genus.

Caterpillar

The caterpillar is up to 25 millimeters long. It is dark brown with numerous small, white dots. The neck plate is black with two white stripes. The light dotted line of the back is only faintly discernible.

Similar Species

The willow Gelbeule similar to the bleaching Gelbeule ( Xanthia icteritia ) and the beech - Gelbeule ( Xanthia aurago ).

Distribution and habitat

The willow Gelbeule is native to the Holarctic, the circulation area covers the whole of Europe and Central Asia and Siberia to the Ussuri. The species is also found in the U.S. and in Canada prior to their respective habitats.

The type can be found on sites that are overgrown with willows or poplars. These include forest edges, meadows, the Raine of wetlands and nutrient-poor grasslands and moors, but also warm and dry ( xerotherm ) sites, such as quarries in the Swabian Alb in which grows the goat willow, or the Pannonian influenced climate zones in Austria for example, on the Bisamberg.

Way of life

The moths are nocturnal and are attracted by artificial light sources. The butterflies fly depending on the region in late summer or autumn. You are univoltine, that is, they bring forth only one generation per year.

The females lay their eggs commonly short series of up to ten pieces of willow branches, in the depression between the bark and the bud scale from a flower, rarely also on aspens. The eggs are almost perfectly round and flattened only in the micropyle. The brownish caterpillars hatch in early spring. They burrow into catkins and then fall to the ground with this. The caterpillars are polyphagous and can feed on other food plants except of willow and poplar leaves, mostly switching to herbaceous plants via, for example, for broadleaf dock to blackberries or bog bilberry.

Pupation takes place as with most moths in a cocoon in the soil. Known for a relatively long resting stage from late May to late August. Only after a week-long Präpupa stage, the final pupation. From late August to late October, sometimes even up to the beginning of November, the butterflies fly. The adult butterflies feed on nectar and are to attract with honey or sugar-containing juices.

The caterpillars of the willow Gelbeule are parasitized by many parasitic wasps species and some species of Tachinidae.

Endangering

The willow Gelbeule is not at risk in Germany. But you still lose a lot of breeding opportunities by drainage of wetlands, river regulation and the pruning and removal of commercially unusable softwoods by forestry.

Taxonomy and systematics

The willow Gelbeule has its scientific species name togata of the toga, a garment in ancient Rome, which was enclosed as a toga praetexta with broad purple stripe. It was first described by Eugen Johann Christoph Esper in his in five parts published in Erlangen compilation The butterflies in illustrations from nature with descriptions. The description of a picture is in Volume IV The type specimen from the collection Esper, which is now in the Zoological State Collection Munich, seems to be lost.

The species is now placed in the subfamily Xyleninae, before she was in the subfamily Cuculliinae. Earlier, but according to the rules of the ICZN not valid names for Xanthia togata are Xanthia lutea Ström, 1783 and Noctua flavago Fabricius, 1787. Among the seven species occurring in Europe Xanthia only Xanthia togata belongs to the genus Xanthia ( Xanthia ).