Hawkmoth lilac. Lilac hawk moth The meaning of hawk moths in nature: benefits and harm

The lilac hawk moth is a very large butterfly, the size of which varies between 45-55 mm. Leads night look life. The habitat of the Lilac Hawk Moth is all of Europe up to 62° north latitude.

Many people call the Lilac Hawkmoth butterfly a hummingbird because of its size and long proboscis, with which the hawk moth sucks juice from plants. The head and abdomen of the butterfly are gray-green. The mustache is white. The hind wings are pink with a white band.

Why is it dangerous?

Distinctive feature The lilac hawkmoth has a characteristic "marbled" pattern on the front wings. The color of the front wing pattern may vary. Wingspan - from 90 to 120 mm. Unlike most, the Lilac Hawk Hawk extends its wings along the body during the resting period.

The caterpillar is particularly large in size. Can reach 11 cm in length. A characteristic feature of the Lilac Hawkmoth caterpillar is a dense horn-shaped outgrowth on the back of the body. For the development and nutrition of hawk moth caterpillars, they choose lilac, viburnum, meadowsweet, ash, currants and grapes. Less often - other plants.

The Lilac Hawk Moth lays its eggs on the underside of the leaves, in the area of the veins. The development time of larvae is July-September months. The butterfly gives one generation.

Wintering

Pupae of the Lilac Hawkmoth overwinter in the soil. They are buried into the soil approximately 20-50 cm.

Spreading

The global range of the Lilac Hawkmoth is multi-regional, covering almost all of eastern, northern, southern and western (with the exception of some regions of Great Britain) Europe.

As for the regions of Russia, the Lilac Hawkmoth is observed in the Kaliningrad, Middle Ural, Western Caucasus, Lower Volga, Middle Amur, Kuril, Primorsky and many other regions. At the same time, the regional population is continuously growing due to migrants.

Forage plants

Viburnum, lilac, privet, meadowsweet, grapes, currants and others. As a result, plants lose their decorative properties, growth slows down, and flowering becomes poor due to extensive damage.

How to fight

The fight against the Lilac Hawkmoth requires an integrated approach. Thanks to this approach, plant protection will be maximum. There are a variety of control methods, ranging from chemicals to mechanical cleaning of diseased individuals to maintain healthy parts of the plant in normal condition. However, first of all, it is important to remember that the main mechanisms for combating Lilac Hawkmoth are the mechanisms inherent in the plant itself. It is very difficult for a tree to “defend” itself if it is weakened.

Strengthening the immunity of the plant itself

The most effective protection not only from the Lilac Hawk Moth, but also from all other pests. Even a plant damaged by the Lilac Hawk Moth caterpillar quickly recovers and retains its strength and fertility.

Organic soil, plant stimulants and beneficial microbes will serve to strengthen the tree’s immunity.

Chemical control

Includes treatment of plants with various preparations. This method has many “opponents”, but it always remains popular.

Agrotechnical measures

The most secure. Include wide range various techniques. If everything is very clear with chemicals, then it is worth understanding agrotechnical measures by studying them in more detail.

So, the main directions of the fight against the Lilac Hawkmoth are:

Proper crop rotation

Understanding pest biology

Proper crop rotation means that planting viburnum and lilac next to each other is prohibited. Spatial isolation of each of these cultures from each other, as well as from other sources of infection, is necessary.

Proper alternation of “noble” grasses and weeds also plays a significant role. You don't have to kill all the weeds. Their optimal quantity helps to reduce a wide variety of pests, including Lilac Hawkmoth. These are distracting plants that make it difficult for the pest to find them. Don't be skeptical about this. This statement has been confirmed through multiple scientific studies and experiments.

Knowledge of pest biology

Allows you to outsmart it and not let it attack the plant. Entomophagous insects, trapping ditches and other tricks are the result of knowledge of the biology of the pest.

Creating a Diverse Ecosystem

This is the use of healing effects various plants and their mutual influence, as well as promoting reproduction natural enemies pest Therefore, monoculture should be excluded. The richer the ecosystem, the more sustainable it is. Next to lilacs or viburnums suffering from Lilac Hawkmoth, it is recommended to plant dynamic, repellent or depressing plants. They maintain and strengthen the overall tone, create a favorable atmosphere and protect the trees.

Universal “protectors” are chamomile, valerian, yarrow, etc.

“Repellers” are garlic, beans, parsley and all labiates and strong-smelling plants. It is recommended to plant them under lilacs and viburnums to protect them from the Lilac Hawk Moth.

Important: the exception is plants such as wormwood and fennel. They suppress not only pests, but also all neighboring plants. It is better to plant them in the farthest corner of the site.

The only insect monument in the world is located in Australia. It was erected in honor of the cactus moth caterpillar, which destroyed the lush thickets of moth that were annoying the shepherds.

Of the 150 thousand species of lepidoptera, less than 1% are considered pests. Most of them never appear in the garden. However, this small percentage of “remainers” brings a lot of concern to garden owners.

Until 1930, the Lilac Hawkmoth was a fairly common species, but gradually began to disappear. Now the Lilac Hawk Moth is under protection in some regions. It is included in the Red Book of the Republic of Mari El, Tatarstan and the Smolensk region. In addition to the Lilac, three more species of hawk moths are protected in these regions.

hawk moths (Sphingidae). Listed in the Red Book of the Smolensk region.

Large butterfly, wingspan 90-120 mm. Unlike most hawk moths, when at rest it keeps its wings extended along the body. Inhabits forest edges, bushes, parks and gardens.

Butterflies fly in June-July; butterflies have one generation. In the south of the range it produces two generations: I - April-June, II - July-August. The flight is swift. It has a well-developed proboscis, the length of which is approximately equal to the length of the butterfly’s body. At dusk, it sucks nectar from flowers without descending on them. At night it flies well into the light.

The caterpillar reaches up to 100 mm in length and 30 mm in thickness, developing from July to September. It feeds on lilac, privet, ash, spirea, viburnum, honeysuckle, currant, apple, meadowsweet, pear, cherry, elderberry, raspberry, jasmine, rowan, common volzhanka, snowberry, barberry.

The pupa is brown, large, with a long proboscis sheath - the proboscis sheath is discrete. The pupa overwinters in the soil. Some pupae overwinter twice.

Found in Western Europe, Asia Minor, Mongolia, Northern China, Japan. In the CIS the range is the European part, the Caucasus, Central Asia, Kazakhstan, Southern Siberia, south of the Far East.

Sources

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An excerpt characterizing the lilac hawk moth

- See, she taught me cleverly, follow her to the fortress! Destroy your home and go into bondage and go. Why! I'll give you the bread, they say! – voices were heard in the crowd.
Princess Marya, lowering her head, left the circle and went into the house. Having repeated the order to Drona that there should be horses for departure tomorrow, she went to her room and was left alone with her thoughts.

For a long time that night, Princess Marya sat at the open window in her room, listening to the sounds of men talking coming from the village, but she did not think about them. She felt that no matter how much she thought about them, she could not understand them. She kept thinking about one thing - about her grief, which now, after the break caused by worries about the present, had already become past for her. She could now remember, she could cry and she could pray. As the sun set, the wind died down. The night was quiet and fresh. At twelve o'clock the voices began to fade, the rooster crowed, and people began to emerge from behind the linden trees. full moon, a fresh, white mist of dew rose, and silence reigned over the village and over the house.
One after another, pictures of the near past appeared to her - illness and last minutes father. And with sad joy she now dwelled on these images, driving away from herself with horror only one last image of his death, which - she felt - she was unable to contemplate even in her imagination at this quiet and mysterious hour of the night. And these pictures appeared to her with such clarity and with such detail that they seemed to her now like reality, now the past, now the future.
Then she vividly imagined that moment when he had a stroke and was dragged out of the garden in the Bald Mountains by the arms and he muttered something with an impotent tongue, twitched his gray eyebrows and looked at her restlessly and timidly.
“Even then he wanted to tell me what he told me on the day of his death,” she thought. “He always meant what he told me.” And so she remembered in all its details that night in Bald Mountains on the eve of the blow that happened to him, when Princess Marya, sensing trouble, remained with him against his will. She did not sleep and at night she tiptoed downstairs and, going up to the door to the flower shop where her father spent the night that night, listened to his voice. He said something to Tikhon in an exhausted, tired voice. He obviously wanted to talk. “And why didn’t he call me? Why didn’t he allow me to be here in Tikhon’s place? - Princess Marya thought then and now. “He will never tell anyone now everything that was in his soul.” This moment will never return for him and for me, when he would say everything he wanted to say, and I, and not Tikhon, would listen and understand him. Why didn’t I enter the room then? - she thought. “Maybe he would have told me then what he said on the day of his death.” Even then, in a conversation with Tikhon, he asked about me twice. He wanted to see me, but I stood here, outside the door. He was sad, it was hard to talk with Tikhon, who did not understand him. I remember how he spoke to him about Lisa, as if she were alive - he forgot that she died, and Tikhon reminded him that she was no longer there, and he shouted: “Fool.” It was hard for him. I heard from behind the door how he lay down on the bed, groaning, and shouted loudly: “My God! Why didn’t I get up then?” What would he do to me? What would I have to lose? And maybe then he would have been consoled, he would have said this word to me.” And Princess Marya said out loud the kind word that he said to her on the day of his death. “Darling! - Princess Marya repeated this word and began to sob with tears that relieved her soul. She now saw his face in front of her. And not the face that she had known since she could remember, and which she had always seen from afar; and that face - timid and weak, which on the last day, bending down to his mouth to hear what he said, she examined up close for the first time with all its wrinkles and details.

Domain: Eukaryotes

Kingdom: Animals

Type: Arthropods

Class: Insects

Squad: Lepidoptera

Family: Hawk Moths

General description

Large or average size butterflies with a powerful body, often cone-shaped, pointed at the end, and narrow, elongated wings. Wingspan 30 – 175 mm; in most species it is 80–100 mm. The antennae are long, fusiform, usually with a pointed and hook-shaped apex. The eyes are round, naked, often covered on top with a tuft of elongated scales. The proboscis is usually very long, several times the length of the body, less often short, sometimes reduced.

The labial palps are well developed, curved upward, densely covered with scales on the outer side, and usually devoid of scaly cover on the inner side. The tarsi bear several rows of short, strong spines. The abdomen is covered with adjacent scales, collected at the end in the form of a brush or wide brush. The fore wings are more than 2 times longer than their width, with a pointed apex. Their outer edge is smooth or carved, with deep notches between the veins, strongly beveled towards the rear edge, sometimes rounded. The hind wings are usually 1.5 times longer than wide, noticeably sloping towards the posterior margin, with a shallow notch along the outer margin in front of the anal angle. The hook is usually well developed, sometimes rudimentary.

Crepuscular and nocturnal butterflies, but some species - tongue hawk moths (Macroglossum stellatarum) and bumblebees (Hemaris) fly only during the day. Sphecodina caudata or small grape hawkmoth (Sphecodina caudata) is active in the morning. IN temperate zone Most species produce 1 generation per year, less often – 2 generations.

The caterpillars are quite large, with five pairs of legs. The coloring is quite bright, with oblique stripes and eye-shaped spots. Caterpillars develop predominantly on tree and shrub species, much less often on herbaceous plants, are distinguished by narrow food selectivity and are most often able to feed on only one or several closely related plant species; Polyphagous species are rare among hawk moths. Some species are known as minor pests of agriculture and forestry. In forests, various conifers and broadleaf species, in gardens - fruit and stone fruit crops. At the rear end of the caterpillar's body there is almost always a characteristic dense growth - a “horn”. Caterpillars are active at dusk and at night.

The pupa is distinguished by the fact that at the rear end it has a prominence in the form of a horn, which only a few species lack.

Area

All species of the family are heat-loving insects, but many species are active migrants and fly into territories that lie significantly north of places its reproduction. They are able to fly across seas and mountain ranges (over 3500 m above sea level).

Types of hawk moths:

euphorbia;
wine;
pine;
hawkmoth "death's head";
ocular;
oleander;
bindweed;
lilac;
proboscis hawk moth and others.

There are about 1,000 species of “northern hummingbirds” on the planet. Some species make long-distance flights, migrate from one end of the country to another, or cover distances between continents.

Euphorbia hawkmoth

Botanical description of the species

Euphorbia hawkmoth (Hyleseuphorbiae) is an insect of the order Lepidoptera, the hawkmoth family. Large butterfly with a wingspan of 65-80 mm. Upper part body olive green or brown. The forewings are gray or olive with light and brown stripes, spots and bands. Two white stripes run along the base of the wings of the spurge hawkmoth, which converge on the head. The hind wings are pink with a black spot at the base and a black border near the outer edge. The lower part of the body and wings are pink.

The abdomen consists of 10 segments, with spiracles located on the sides up to the 7th segment. The ring-shaped parts are separated by light stripes; the anterior segments have black spots. There are spurs on the front legs that the butterfly uses to groom its antennae. The abdomen has the shape of a cylinder with a pointed end. It consists of ring-shaped segments with spiracles. The eyes are convex, round, facet type. Butterflies are able to distinguish colors and objects in minimal light.

The sucking type oral apparatus is represented by a long proboscis. Most of the time, the proboscis is twisted into a spiral; when it flies up to a flower, the moth straightens it and lowers it between the petals. Butterflies are active at night. They spend the day sitting on trees or bushes, covered with wings. Moths are attracted to electric light and flock in large numbers to artificial light sources.

Distribution area

The butterfly lives in Southern and Central Europe, the Middle East and Asia Minor. In Russia, it is widespread in all southern European regions, noted in the Urals, the Caucasus, and southern Siberia. Migrating moths have been spotted in Karelia, Tomsk and Tyumen regions. The wide distribution of the species is explained by its lower sensitivity to cold. Butterflies settle where spurge grows - on slopes, forest edges, along field roads.

The spurge hawk moth is included in the Red Book of the Tyumen Region as a rare species. As protective measures, it is recommended to preserve areas where forage plants grow: milkweed, tarragon, tarragon wormwood.

Description of the larva

The caterpillar of the spurge hawkmoth can have different basic colors - green, yellow, red-brown, black. In green individuals, the pattern consists of black and yellow spots, as well as white dots. There are 11 white spots visible on the sides of the larva, which are located on each body segment. The caterpillar has underdeveloped coral-colored abdominal legs, a red head and a longitudinal stripe along the back. The horn is red at the base and black at the end. The bright color serves as a warning to birds. Larvae that eat poisonous milkweed become poisonous themselves.

Nutritional Features

The hawk moth got its name from the larva’s food plant, milkweed. There are about 200 species of this plant, most of which are classified as harmful weeds. Euphorbia is drought tolerant, reproduces quickly and grows vigorously. Getting rid of the weed is quite difficult, so the euphorbia hawkmoth, which eats leaves and flowers, is considered a useful phytophage. In addition to various types of the main food plant, caterpillars can feed on knotweed or knotweed, grapes, and fuchsia.

Reproduction

Lepidoptera insects are distinguished by complete transformation.

Their life cycle includes several successive stages:

egg;
larva;
chrysalis;
imago.

The butterfly flight is celebrated in May-June, the second time in September. Females and males mate at dusk. Fertilized females lay eggs on milkweed. The eggs are light green and round. They are coated with a sticky substance that helps them stick to the leaves and stems of the plant. The embryo develops in about two weeks. Hatched caterpillars are small, uniformly colored - green or yellow.

Young larvae eat a lot, they need to accumulate large number nutrients before pupation begins. Caterpillars go through the 5th stage of maturation. After each, they increase in size and change color. The larvae eat the shed skin; it is a complete source of protein. The second generation, which appears in August, is distinguished by a huge number of larvae in favorable years. Crowding of caterpillars occurs on food plants.

Before pupation, the caterpillar slides to the ground, it hides under a layer of grass or buries itself 5-7 cm into the soil. A cobweb cocoon is built there. The pupa is light brown. At this stage, the insects take three weeks to a year to arrive.

Not only the pupae of the second generation go to winter, but also some of the first. Young hawk moths are born at night. Butterflies crawl onto branches, where they spread their wings for 15-30 minutes.

Wine Hawkmoth

Area

Widely distributed in the Palearctic, from Europe incl. Average and Southern Urals, through northern Turkey, northern Iran, Afghanistan, eastern Central Asia, Kazakhstan, southern Siberia to Central Yakutia, the Amur region, Primorye, Sakhalin, the Southern Kuril Islands; found in northern India, Nepal, northern Indochina, China, Korea and Japan.

Name

This hawk moth is named by scientists in honor of the mythical hero, friend of Odysseus - Elpenor. The scientific name of this elegant butterfly is sophisticated - Deilephila elpenor. The fate of Odysseus's comrade is sad: returning with the soldiers from Troy, he died absurdly, falling from the roof of the palace of the sorceress Circe. Perhaps it was the blood of a Greek youth that colored the wings of this glorious butterfly?
But why is it wine? Most experts tend to consider the origin of the Russian name for this hawk moth from two points of view. Firstly, the food plant of wine hawk moth caterpillars is grapes. True, only in the southern regions. In more northern areas, where grapes do not grow, the caterpillars are quite happy with the leaves of bedstraw, loosestrife, and willowherb (fireweed). So, because of his addiction to grapes, this hawk moth would have gotten its name. The second version believes that this butterfly really seemed to have bathed in a glass of red wine. Too bright lilac-lilac-pink shades stand out in its coloring.
Varieties

The wine hawk moth also has younger brother. That's what he's called - small wine hawk moth. The butterflies are very similar in color, but the small one sports even more pink “clothes”, for which it apparently received its funny Latin name - porcellus - “pig”.

Reproduction

If the summer is favorable, then the hawk moth gives two generations. The first caterpillars appear by the end of June, and the second - in August. The caterpillar of the wine hawk moth is very interesting. There are two large reddish-purple spots on the fourth and fifth segments of her body. They seem to imitate the “glasses” of the well-known cobra. And the caterpillar itself looks like a small but scary snake. This similarity is further enhanced by the fact that the first three segments, together with the head, are small in size and are easily drawn into the large fourth and fifth in case of danger. The result is a “swollen” head with scary eyes. In addition, at the end of the caterpillar’s body there is a small but strong brown horn. With such an unusual appearance and the fact that a disturbed caterpillar is capable of making sudden movements from side to side, the insect saves itself from predators.

Peculiarities

The wingspan of the largest individuals is 60-70 mm (the small wine hawk moth is noticeably smaller). Adult butterflies (imago) feed on the nectar of many of our flowers. On windless summer nights, you can watch how these beauties occasionally fly from the depths of the garden into the light of a lantern on the veranda, only to hit the lamp and rush off again to the fragrant roses and gillyflowers.

Pine hawkmoth

Appearance

The wingspan of the butterfly is 6.5 - 8 cm, the front wings are mouse-gray with curved line at the top and three black lines in the center. The hind wings are brownish-gray, without a pattern. The abdomen has transverse black and light gray stripes, and a longitudinal gray stripe divided in two by a thin black line. One generation per year. Flight period: from the first half of June to the end of July, depending on the weather and climatic conditions of the area. Butterflies are active in the evening twilight, flying towards the light of street lamps. During the day they sit motionless on the trunks of coniferous trees.

Development

The female lays eggs on the underside of the leaf of the host plant. Pupation in soil, at a depth of 5 cm or in moss. An adult caterpillar is 6.5–8 cm long. The color of the body is variable, from green, with white intermittent stripes on the sides and a wide dorsal stripe of reddish-brown color, to dirty brown with weakly defined longitudinal stripes. At the posterior end of the body there is a black-brown horn. Caterpillars eat needles.

Death's head hawk moth butterfly

The death's head hawk moth, which in some countries is called Adam's head, has been considered a harbinger of death for a long time among many peoples of Europe. The death's head hawk moth is distributed from southern Africa to the Shetland Islands, in the west it reaches the Azores Islands, in the east - Northern Iran.

Life cycle

The death's head butterfly mates in the spring. The female lays green, oval eggs on top of potato and other nightshade leaves. Caterpillars living in Europe are bright yellow or green with noticeable purple diagonal stripes on both sides of the body. IN protective devices caterpillars include not only an amazing chirping sound, but also a very toxic substance. The caterpillar has a sharp projection on its abdomen to scare away hungry birds.

Caterpillars are very voracious, so they soon reach a considerable length. Having reached required sizes, the caterpillar burrows into the ground, where it forms a cocoon. The death's head pupa overwinters, and in the spring a butterfly emerges from it. Individuals heading south soon prepare for a long flight. The death's head hawk moth is a thermophilic species, therefore it prefers valleys at low altitudes above sea level and warm places in mountains of medium height.

Lifestyle

The Death's Head Hawkmoth leaves the African continent every year and flies north or east to reach Central Europe. These butterflies have narrow wings reinforced with thick veins, so they fly well.

Interestingly, both the butterfly, the caterpillar, and the pupa can make clearly audible sounds. Children often throw death's head caterpillars during games, which give out oral apparatus warning howl. Even hawk moth pupae can creak. The squeak of adult butterflies is clearly audible, with the help of which they try to repel any attack. The squeak is explained by the expulsion of air from the esophagus. This property and the image of the skull on the cephalothorax of the butterfly became the basis for the emergence of all kinds of prejudices.

What does it eat?

The caterpillars of the death's head butterfly, in addition to potato leaves, also eat the leaves of tomatoes, jasmine, snowberry, beets and cotton. Butterflies are active mainly at night. With their short but extremely strong proboscis, they pierce the skin of ripe fruits and drink their juice. They also feed on flower nectar and honeydew, but their favorite food is bee honey. The death's head butterfly often makes its way into hives, where it diligently examines the honeycombs and sucks honey from them.

Interestingly, bees do not usually attack butterflies. The attack occurs only in isolated cases, and as a result, the hawk moth dies. After lethal dose bee venom begins new stage his mystical life. Having killed the death's head butterfly, the bees cover it with a layer of wax and leave it in this mummified form in the hive.

Death's Head Sightings

Death's-head Hawkmoth usually lands on plants that bloom at night, such as jasmine, tobacco, fuchsia, adonis and various types orchids. These plants depend on moths for pollination because other types of insects cannot reach the pistil and stamens deeply hidden inside the flower. The death's head hawk moth caterpillar can be found in a potato field. Sometimes an adult butterfly appears at night near a light source. Large and strong, flying into a room, it can frighten a person with its size and swiftness alone, not to mention the fact that its wings emit a quiet hum. When potatoes were harvested by hand, pupae of this hawk moth were often found in the ground.

As a result of the use of pesticides in potato fields, a significant number of hawk moth caterpillars are destroyed, and the mechanized harvesting of potatoes kills its pupae.

Hawk hawk

Description

The hawk moth belongs to the family of Hawkmoths from the order Lepidoptera. This is a brown-gray butterfly, in which only the short hind wings are brightly colored. On a pinkish-red background is the famous eye spot.

The butterfly's body length is slightly more than four centimeters, while its wingspan can reach 95 millimeters.

Behavior

In a calm state, the hawk moth easily mimics, merging with the color environment: tree bark, dry sticks, stones.

It is interesting that the adult hawk moth insect does not feed at all; it only needs the reserves that its body has accumulated while still in the form of a caterpillar larva.

Another interesting fact is the flight speed of the hawk moth, up to 50 kilometers per hour, and its ability to fly over long distances. They say that observers traced the path of the insect from the Stavropol foothills of the Caucasus to the Moscow region. So, in this experiment, the butterfly’s flight of more than a thousand kilometers lasted just over seven hours.

Many observers and researchers call hawk moths northern hummingbirds for their flight style and the ability of some species to feed through their proboscis.

During the daytime, these butterflies practically do not fly, but hide in the shade of trees or bushes; activity begins with the arrival of twilight, which is why its coloring matches all night moths.