Origin of the species and description
Photo: Mourning Butterfly
The species belongs to the diurnal butterflies of the nymphalid family. The Russian name Lepidoptera is associated with the dark color of the insect. In the West, the butterfly is better known under the name “mourning mantle”, in France its name is translated as “sorrow”, in Poland it is called the “gardener-complainer”. It owes its Latin name Antiopa to the queen of the Amazons, Antiope.
Interesting fact: Naturalist Carl Linnaeus named the butterfly in honor of the daughter of the god Nyctaeus. She gave birth to twins from Zeus, but was afraid of her father's rage and fled to the Peloponnese. Nikteus ordered his brother to find and kill his daughter. He persuaded her sons to tie the fugitive to the horns of a fierce bull. At the last moment, the twins learned that it was their mother in front of them and the murder had not been carried out.
According to one version, mourners got their name due to the similarity with the color of the cape of professional mourners, a common profession in the 15th century in Europe. After 300 years, the moth became a popular symbol of mourning among European nations.
Video: Mourning Butterfly
There are many subspecies dependent on temperature indicators. Under the influence of extremely low or, on the contrary, high temperatures, many forms arise, such as, for example, hygiaea Heydenr. The subspecies lacks blue eyes and the light border along the edge of the wings is wider.
Moth (Acharia Stimulea)
The caterpillars are green-white-brown in color, and are painted so that it looks like they are wearing a saddle and blanket or blanket. The caterpillars have a pair of fleshy horns topped with hairs that secrete an irritating poison.
Butterfly of the slug family.
Appearance and features
Photo: Daytime mourning butterfly
The description of the mourning monastery is much more colorful than its name. The background of the wings is cherry or dark brown. The outer edge of the wings is sinuous, serrated, bordered by a wide yellow stripe. Along it there is a row of blue or light blue spots. At the top of the front wings there are two faded yellow spots.
- wingspan - 7-9 centimeters;
- The length of the front wing is 3-4.5 centimeters.
The lower parts of the wings are dark. In wintering individuals the border is much lighter. This is due to the fact that the color fades during wintering. The lighter color is not associated with seasonal forms. In butterflies living in the Far East, the border remains yellow. Sexual dimorphism is not expressed.
Interesting fact: The color of the moth depends on the weather conditions in which the pupa developed. Very high or extremely low temperatures cause shock and hormonal changes occur in the body. The brown tone becomes darker and blue strokes may be absent.
For the nymphalidae family, a protective color is characteristic of the underside of the wings. This side of the mourning dress is brown with black strokes and a light border. This color serves as a camouflage for the moth against the background of tree trunks and branches.
The body of the insect is oval-shaped and dark brown in color; there are three pairs of thin legs on which taste buds are present. On the head there are long club-shaped antennae as an organ of touch and a proboscis. The moth has 4 eyes: 2 of them are in the parietal zone and 2 on the sides.
Meadow pestle is a poisonous insect
Zygaenidae, wingspan 16-38 mm
Groups of pests often flutter over flower beds in sunny weather. Insects are easy to recognize: they have rounded red spots on their dark blue or green wings. In addition, unlike other butterflies, the wings of the meadow moth are folded like a roof, like those of moths. If a butterfly is caught, it will begin to secrete repellent foam. In nature, no one hunts a butterfly. It is poisonous and itself very resistant to poisons.
Caterpillars of moths are densely covered with warts, from which small bristles protrude. Body color: yellow-green with a scattering of black spots. Caterpillars can also secrete protective substances, so it is better not to handle insects with your bare hands. They feed mainly on clover and grasshoppers.
How to attract meadow moth. Plant clover, plantain, alfalfa or thyme in the area. The butterfly will also be happy with the dandelion, but usually, on the contrary, they try to remove it from the site.
- How to get rid of dandelions on your property - useful tips for summer residents
Dandelions feel great in your area and threaten to “take over” it completely? Fight the weeds!
Where does the mourning butterfly live?
Photo: Mourning butterfly from the Red Book
The species is widespread in the Palearctic. Moths are accustomed to life in temperate climates. Therefore, they cannot be found in tropical areas. Insects do not go further than 68 degrees north latitude. Mourning birds live in England, Norway, and Germany. Migrating individuals have been observed on the shores of the Arctic Ocean.
The species is distributed in Japan, throughout Europe and Asia, North America, and northern Africa. Does not appear in Greece, southern Spain and on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Inhabits the Caucasus and Carpathian mountains, with the exception of the Black Sea coast. The species is absent on the Crimean Peninsula, but vagrant individuals can be found.
The insects were artificially brought to North America, and from there the butterflies spread from Mexico to Canada. Previously, the species lived throughout Europe, but after the end of World War II, their numbers declined sharply. In the tundra zone only migrating individuals are found, in forest-steppe and steppe areas - only in forest valleys.
With the onset of warm spring days, moths circle in clearings, gardens and meadows, the banks of reservoirs, and roadsides. For wintering, they look for reliable shelters, and when it gets warmer, they go outside to search for food and reproduce. They can be found at altitudes of up to 2000 m. Life expectancy under favorable conditions is up to one year.
Subspecies
In Eastern Europe and parts of Asia, the main species is Anthocharis cardamines, which has 9 subspecies.
- A.c. koreana – habitats of the Amur and Ussuri rivers;
- A.c. Alexandra – common in Altai;
- A.c. hayashii – territory of Japan;
- A. c. cardamines – Europe, China, temperate Asia;
- A.c. septentrionalis – lives in the Far East;
- A.c. progressa – distribution area of the Tien Shan;
- A. c. phoenissa - lives on the Kopetdag mountain system;
- A.c. isshikii - spread to Sakhalin and Japan;
- A.c. meridionalis – habitat region of Transbaikalia. Sayans.
What does the mourning butterfly eat?
Photo: Mourning Butterfly
Insects prefer overripe fruits - mainly plums and apples - to flower nectar. Moths are very attracted to the smell of sweet and sour fermentation. Clusters of these creatures can be found on damaged tree trunks on which tree sap has appeared. Butterflies especially like birch sap.
Having drunk the fermented juice, the moths become absent-minded and lose vigilance, so they become prey for birds and small rodents. Mourningbirds sit on flowers and field weeds. Creatures cannot obtain the lack of vitamins and microelements from pollen, so they make up for it from rotting carrion and animal excrement.
It is very important for moths to receive a sufficient amount of moisture, so it is vital for them to live near bodies of water. At the caterpillar stage, insects feed on food plants.
Their diet includes:
- hawthorn;
- rose hip;
- maple;
- Linden;
- alder;
- willow;
- poplar;
- nettle.
Often beautiful creatures can be found sitting on the ground near fruit-bearing trees, trying to feast on overripe fruits. They often choose cracked fruits so that they can easily extract the juice. Caterpillars spend most of their time searching for food. Before hibernating, they feed heavily, trying to eat as much vegetation as possible.
Nutrition
Most often, the cabbage butterfly is photographed sitting on a cabbage. The name of the insect also speaks of its love for this vegetable. However, cabbage is not the only delicacy of the cabbage whites. The adult cabbage butterfly feeds on flower nectar, preferring dandelions, daisies, alfalfa, and greenweed.
But her offspring are very fond of leaves of cabbage, rutabaga, horseradish, turnips, rapeseed, radishes and radishes. The cabbage caterpillar will not refuse capers, nasturtium, mustard and even garlic. The gluttony of caterpillars (they eat almost continuously) makes them dangerous pests of fields and vegetable gardens.
Features of character and lifestyle
Photo: Daytime mourning butterfly
With the onset of spring, butterflies emerge from secluded places, bask in the sun and look for food for themselves. In Russia they can be found only from July-August to October. When the nights become cool, insects begin to look for places to winter - cracks in stumps and trunks to protect themselves from the cold, basements of residential buildings.
The dark color of the wings helps insects easily hide in the grass. At the beginning of spring, only females can be found. They lay eggs and then die immediately. These individuals are capable of covering vast distances. Migration usually occurs in the fall in search of refuge.
Interesting fact: You can determine the cardinal directions by the mourning table. When a moth sits down to rest, it folds its wings and turns its back to the sun. In the morning the wings are turned to the east, at noon to the south, and in the evening they point to the west.
Mourning women appear in one generation. The subspecies have not been studied, but there are a lot of them. The brightness of their color depends on the time of year and habitat. When emerging from the cocoon in the spring, the insect will have a duller color. Immediately after birth they migrate. In hot weather, flights take several days. They depend on weather conditions.
Moths can live until June of next year, and in the mountains until August. In spring, butterflies live in places far from where they were born. In winter, many cannot withstand the frost and die. From the beginning of summer, the number of males predominates, then the inequality is eliminated.
Lifestyle
Aurora butterflies choose places near forests, edges, and clearings. In early spring, at the end of March-April, males can be seen flying along the bushes in wet meadows. They are preoccupied with finding a female. During active flights, they cross clearings, wastelands, and climb into river floodplains. Females are passive and prefer to spend time in meadows among forbs. Butterflies love to fly on clear sunny days; even in the forest they try to avoid shady areas.
The main summer time is from April to July, which may vary in different regions depending on climatic conditions. In Siberia, Anthocharis cardamines appear in May, in mountainous areas - in June-July. Adults feed on several types of plants:
- oregano;
- viola canina;
- snakehead;
- evening;
- willow flowers.
In most habitats, butterflies give one generation, only in southern Europe there are 2 generations.
Social structure and reproduction
Photo: Mourning butterfly in nature
Reproduction of the mourning moth is not much different from other moths. Pheromones are released from the back of the abdomen of females, which they use to attract males. The mating process lasts quite a long time - from 30 minutes to several hours in habitats. Males protect the territory from rivals.
Clutches contain about 100 eggs. The eggs are attached to the leaves or stems of food plants. Moths attach clutches around birch branches, forming rings. The caterpillars hatch in June. At birth, their length is only 2 millimeters. The caterpillars are black with white and red spots.
The brood is kept in a group. Caterpillars go through 5 stages of maturation. Each of them sheds. Amazon queens eat their skin. By the last stage, their length reaches 5.4 centimeters. Before pupation, individuals spread out. The pupae are attached to the branches of small trees upside down. Their length is about 3 centimeters. She will remain in this state for 11-12 days.
A few days after birth, insects enter diapause. Until the end of August they are in energy-saving mode. After this, the moths begin to feed intensively in order to accumulate energy reserves for hibernation. With the onset of the first cold weather, they hide and fall asleep.
Keeping at home
Some enthusiasts would like to leave the butterfly at home, but to do this, it needs to be provided with favorable living conditions.
You can keep the Admiral in an aquarium or in a plastic container, covering it with a net on top. The grass should be placed at the bottom of the container, periodically spraying it with water. In addition, vertically located branches must be inserted inside, on which the Admiral butterfly can spread its wings.
The optimal storage mode is temperature + 24… 30 and humidity 70–90%. To feed, moisten a cotton swab in sweet syrup prepared in a ratio of 1:6 and bring it to the butterfly. To recognize food, the butterfly needs to touch it with its front paws. You can use pieces of overripe apples, pears, and plums for food.
It is necessary to feed the insect once a day. The lifespan of moths indoors is only 3–4 weeks.
Natural enemies of mourning butterflies
Photo: Mourning butterfly from the Beautiful Book
At all stages of development, the insect is surrounded by many enemies. Spiders, beetles or ants are not averse to eating moth eggs. Adults are affected by some species of birds, reptiles or small rodents. Although Lepidoptera have a camouflage color that turns them into a dried leaf, many individuals do not survive until spring, being discovered in shelters.
Caterpillars suffer from parasitic insects, Hymenoptera, which lay eggs directly in their bodies. Pests also lay eggs on food plants. Caterpillars eat leaves with clutches and parasitoids develop in the body of future butterflies, eating them from the inside. Riders are born already fully formed.
Parasites include ovoid, larval, ovolarval, pupal, and larval-pupal types. Some of them can paralyze the victim completely or certain parts of their body. Organisms live and develop at the expense of butterflies. As a result of their vital activity, lepidoptera die or become sterile.
Spiders and mantises hunt moths from ambush. They wait for beautiful creatures on flowers or catch them in their webs. Enemies include some species of wasps and ground beetles. Blackbirds and dragonflies hunt for mourning birds during flight. Toads and lizards lie in wait for butterflies on the ground and near water bodies.
What do caterpillars look like?
Hawkmoth caterpillars are most often large, for example, the larva of the wine hawkmoth has a body length of 70-80 mm, and there are species in which this size reaches 10 cm. The larvae have five pairs of pseudopods, a dense growth on the back of the body, and the mouthparts are directed downward. They mainly develop on shrubs and trees, very rarely on herbaceous plants. Most often, caterpillars can feed on only one plant, and if several, then closely related ones.
Caterpillar
Just like adult butterflies, hawkmoth caterpillars amaze the imagination with their variety and brightness of color:
- the wine hawk moth caterpillar can be emerald, dark green, dark brown or black, with black spots on the body with a white border;
- the larva of the ocellated hawk moth is painted with white dots and oblique strokes;
- The bindweed hawkmoth caterpillar is red-brown or grayish-green with dark yellow oblique stripes.
Some caterpillars make sounds to scare away enemies, releasing air through their spiracles in a special way. Moreover, the height of sound signals varies from ultrasound to sound that can be perceived by a person.
Population and species status
Photo: Mourning Butterfly
Before the outbreak of World War II, the number of moths was quite high. Lepidoptera were distributed throughout Europe. For reasons still unknown, the population declined significantly after the war. At the moment the level is low but relatively stable.
At the end of the 1960s, there was a massive surge in the number of insects in the Moscow region, in 1970 - in Novosibirsk, in 1985 - in the Tula region, and more recently - in 2008 in the Chelyabinsk region. Over its history, the species has experienced several fluctuations in numbers, either decreasing or increasing.
The population decline trend mainly depends on the destruction of the mourning bird's natural habitats. In the 1990s, moths were found in more than 20 natural and artificially created territories of the Moscow region. During this period, individuals could be found in residential areas, the Kuzminsky forest, and on the Krylatsky hills.
In the 1990s, the number recovered and even increased slightly, but it was rare to see it within the Moscow Ring Road. Since the early 2000s, only five habitats have remained. If before that there were many individuals in Tsaritsyn, then after 2005, no matter how much the territory was surveyed, no population could be detected.
Insects are important elements in the food chain. Larvae and pupae play an important role in bird nutrition. Thanks to adult individuals, rare species of small mammals, birds, amphibians and reptiles survive. They play an important role in flower pollination.
In built-up areas, mourners lack food and wintering places. Due to the drying out of trees along the roads, lack of water and moist soil, reduction of green spaces, and regular destruction of old hollow trees, a decrease in the number of insects is observed.
Ways to fight
How to deal with the American butterfly? There are a number of special measures that will indirectly help prevent the appearance of an uninvited guest or reduce its population:
- Quarantine measures: inspection of supplies, new seedlings, etc.
- Planting monitoring.
- Removing dead bark from trees, in which pest pupae can hide in anticipation of spring warmth.
- Destruction of excess and dry branches.
- Regular weeding of the area;
- Plowing the rows between trees and shrubs in the fall.
But these measures are more prevention than a way to combat. There are special remedies for the American butterfly that help destroy it and save fruit and berry crops.
Chemicals
American moth control products should be used with caution because they are toxic. It is very important to follow safety precautions. But these remedies show good results:
- "Antio";
- "Durbasan";
- "Zollon";
- "Metaphos";
- "Nitrafen";
- "Phosfamide."
You can also use systemic insecticides such as Aktara or Karate. They are applied to trees by spraying them with a garden sprayer before flowering, so as not to harm the future harvest.
It is necessary to treat not only the affected trees, but also all plants located within a radius of 50 m. The consumption rate is indicated in the instructions for each drug and depends on the concentration of active substances in it.
Other means
The most primitive way to destroy a butterfly is the mechanical collection of caterpillars. They are easy to spot on the leaves. It is more effective to do this at night or after it has rained, because at this time the caterpillars gather in flocks.
On an industrial scale, biological control methods are often used - the use of viruses and microorganisms that kill the American white butterfly.
You can also make traps from black hoses immersed at one end in a barrel of water. Caterpillars love moisture and warmth, and will certainly climb inside to pupate. Therefore, after 3 days it will be possible to destroy the prey.
An effective way to combat the American butterfly with folk remedies is a trap with beer or kvass. For caterpillars, such drinks are a treat. Therefore, if you hang a small container with a treat on a tree branch, after a few hours the pests will be trapped.
To exterminate a pest on your site, you need to use a set of measures. The use of folk remedies alone will not be enough. When the American white butterfly is driven out of the garden, it is necessary to constantly follow the rules of prevention.
