What is the name of a butterfly with a skull on its back? Death's head butterfly. Lifestyle and habitat of the death's head butterfly. Death's Head Habitat

Origin of the species and description

The death's head belongs to the hawk moth family. Its Latin name, Acherontia atropos, combines two designations that strike fear into the inhabitants of the Ancient One. The word “Acheron” means the name of the river of sorrow in the kingdom of the dead, “Atropos” is the name of one of the goddesses of human destinies, who cut the thread identified with life.

The ancient Greek name was intended to describe the horrors of the underworld. The Russian name of the moth, Dead's Head (Adam's Head), is associated with its coloring - there is a yellow pattern on the chest, shaped like a skull. In many European countries, the hawk moth bears a name similar to the Russian one.

Video: Death's Head Butterfly

The species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his work “The System of Nature” and named it Sphinx atropos. In 1809, entomologist Jacob Heinrich Laspeyres allocated the hawkmoth to the genus Acherontia, to which it is still classified today. This genus belongs to the taxonomic rank Acherontiini. Within the rank, interspecific kinship has not been fully studied.

There are a huge number of insect species in the world, but only this creature has been awarded the creation of so many signs, legends and superstitions. Unsubstantiated speculation led to persecution, persecution and destruction of the species as a harbinger of trouble.

Interesting fact: The artist Van Gogh, who was in the hospital in 1889, saw a moth in the garden and depicted it in a painting he called “Death's Head Hawkmoth.” But the painter made a mistake and instead of the famous Adam’s head he painted the “Peacock-Eyed Pear”.

Appearance and features

The Adam's head species is one of the largest among European moths. Sexual dimorphism is vague and females differ little from males.

Their sizes reach:

• length of the front wings - 45-70 mm;
• wingspan of males - 95-115 mm;
• wingspan of females - 90-130 mm;
• weight of males - 2-6 g;
• females weigh 3-8 g.

The fore wings are pointed, twice as long as they are wide; the rear ones are one and a half, there is a small notch. The front ones have a smooth outer edge, the rear ones are beveled towards the edge. The head is dark brown or black. On the black-brown chest there is a yellow pattern that looks like a human skull with black eye sockets. This drawing may be completely absent.

The lower part of the chest and abdomen are yellow. The color of the wings can vary from brown-black to ocher-yellow. The pattern of moths may vary. The abdomen is up to 60 millimeters long, up to 20 millimeters in diameter, covered with scales. The proboscis is strong, thick, up to 14 millimeters, and has cilia.

The body is cone-shaped. The eyes are round. The labial palps are pressed tightly to the head and covered with scales. The antennae are short, narrowed, and covered with two rows of cilia. The female has no eyelashes. The legs are thick and short. There are four rows of spines on the paws. There are two pairs of spurs on the hind tibia.

So we figured it out, What does a Death's Head butterfly look like?. Now let's find out where the Death's Head butterfly lives.

Where does the death's head butterfly live?

Habitat includes, western side, Northeast. Found in Southern and Central Europe, the Canary Islands and the Azores. Vagrant individuals were observed in the Palearctic, Middle, and Northeast.

The habitats of Adam's head directly depend on the time of year, since the species is migratory. In the southern regions, moths live from May to September. Migrating hawk moths are capable of flying speeds of up to 50 kilometers per hour. This figure gives them the right to be record holders among butterflies and allows them to migrate to other countries.

Butterflies often choose areas near potato fields. When digging up potatoes, you come across many pupae. In Transcaucasia, individuals settle at the foot of the mountains at an altitude of up to 700 m above sea level. During the migration period it can be found at an altitude of 2500 m. The flight time and its distance depend on weather conditions. At migration sites, lepidoptera form new colonies.

What does the death's head butterfly eat?

Imagoes are partial to sweets. The nutrition of adult individuals is an important factor not only in maintaining vital functions, but also in the maturation of eggs in the body of females. Due to their short proboscis, moths cannot feed on nectar, but they can drink tree sap and juices flowing from damaged fruits.

However, insects very rarely feed on fruits, since when sucking honey, juice or collected moisture, they prefer not to be in a state of flight, but to sit on the surface near the fruit. Butterfly Death's Head loves honey, can eat up to 15 grams at a time. They enter hives or nests and pierce the honeycombs with their proboscis. Caterpillars feed on the tops of cultivated plants.

They especially like:

• potato;
• carrot;
• tomato;
• tobacco;
• fennel;
• beet;
• eggplant;
• turnip;
• physalis.

The caterpillars also eat the bark of trees and some plants - belladonna, datura, wolfberry, cabbage, hemp, nettle, hibiscus, ash. They cause significant harm to shrubs in gardens by eating foliage. Most of the time, the caterpillars are underground and only come out to feed. They give preference to nightshade plants.

Individuals feed alone and not in groups, so they do not cause much harm to plants. Unlike pests, they do not destroy crops, since they are an endangered species and do not cause mass raids. Plants are fully restored in a short time.

Features of character and lifestyle

This species of butterfly is nocturnal. During the day they rest, and at dusk they begin to hunt. Until midnight, moths can be observed in the light of lamps and poles, which attracts them. In the rays of bright light they spin beautifully, performing mating dances.

Insects can make squeaking sounds. For a long time, entomologists could not understand what organ formed them and believed that it came out of the stomach. But in 1920, Heinrich Prell made a discovery and found out that the squeak appears as a result of the vibration of a growth on the upper lip when the butterfly sucks in air and pushes it back.

Caterpillars can also make squeaks, but this is different from the sounds of adults. It is formed as a result of friction of the jaws. Before rebirthing into a butterfly, the pupae can make a sound if disturbed. Scientists are not one hundred percent sure what it serves, but most agree that insects make them to scare away strangers.

In the caterpillar stage, insects spend almost all their time in burrows, crawling to the surface only to eat. Sometimes they don’t even stick out completely from the ground, but reach out to the nearest leaf, eat it and hide back. The burrows are located at a depth of 40 centimeters. They live like this for two months and then pupate.

Social structure and reproduction

Annually death's head butterfly produces two offspring. Interestingly, the second generation of females is born sterile. Therefore, only newly arrived migrants will be able to increase the population. In favorable conditions and a warm climate, a third offspring may appear. However, if the autumn turns out to be cold, some individuals do not have time to pupate and die.

Females produce pheromones, thereby attracting males, after which they mate and lay eggs up to one and a half millimeters in size, bluish or green. Moths attach them to the inside of the leaf or deposit them between the plant trunk and the leaf.

The eggs hatch into large caterpillars with five pairs of legs. Insects go through 5 stages of maturation. At first they grow up to one centimeter. Stage 5 individuals reach 15 centimeters in length and weigh about 20 grams. The caterpillars look very beautiful. They spend two months underground, then another month in the pupal stage.

Male pupae reach 60 millimeters in length, females - 75 mm, the weight of male pupae is up to 10 grams, females - up to 12 grams. At the end of the pupation process, the pupa may be yellow or cream in color, after 12 hours it becomes red-brown.

Natural enemies of the death's head butterfly

• larval;
• egg;
• ovolarval;
• larval-pupal;
• pupal.

Since hawk moths are partial to bee honey, they are often stung. It has been proven that Adam's head is almost insensitive to bee venom and can withstand up to five bee stings. To protect themselves from a swarm of bees, they buzz, like a queen bee recently emerging from a cocoon.

Moths also have other tricks. They sneak into hives at night and produce chemicals that mask their own odors. With the help of fatty acids they calm bees. It happens that bees sting a honey lover to death.

Insects do not cause damage to beekeeping due to their low numbers, but beekeepers still consider them pests and destroy them. They often erect nets around the hives with cells no larger than 9 millimeters so that only bees can get inside.

Population and species status

Often individuals can only be found in single numbers. The number of species directly depends on weather and natural conditions, so their number varies greatly from year to year. In cold years, the number drops significantly, in warm years it quickly resumes.

If winters are too harsh, the pupae may die. But by next year the numbers are restored thanks to migrating individuals. The second generation of moths is bred in much larger numbers thanks to the arriving migrants. However, in the middle zone, females of the second generation cannot bear offspring.

The situation with the number of moths is quite favorable in Transcaucasia. Winters here are moderately warm and the larvae survive safely until the thaw. In other areas, changes in natural conditions have a detrimental effect on the number of butterflies.

The total number cannot be calculated, only indirectly, based on the pupae found. The reduction in the number of insects in the territories of the former USSR was caused by chemical treatments of fields, especially when fighting the Colorado potato beetle, which caused the death of caterpillars and pupae, uprooting of bushes, and destruction of habitats.

Interesting fact: Moths have always been persecuted by humans. The sounds produced by the moth and the pattern on its chest led to panic among the ignorant people in 1733. They attributed the raging epidemic to the appearance of the hawk moth. In France, some people still believe that if a scale from a Death's Head wing gets into your eye, you can go blind.

Death's Head Butterfly Guard

In 1980, the species Adam's head was listed in the Red Book of the Ukrainian SSR and in 1984 in the Red Book of the USSR, as. But it is currently excluded from the list, since it has been assigned the status of a relatively common species and does not require protective measures.

The hawk moth has been assigned a category 3 called “rare species.” These include insect species with small populations that are not currently classified as "endangered" or "vulnerable" species. Special educational classes are held for schoolchildren on the inadmissibility of destroying caterpillars.

In the countries of the former USSR, there is a progressive decline in the number of individuals, so it is urgent to take measures to protect these creatures. Conservation measures should consist of studying the species, its development, the influence of weather conditions and food plants, and restoration of habitual habitats.

It is necessary to study the distribution, determine the boundaries of habitat and migration zones. In cultivated agricultural areas, the use of insecticides should be replaced with an integrated pest management method. Moreover, pesticides are ineffective in the fight against beetles.

Translated from Greek, butterfly means “soul.” It is just as light, airy and clean. It is necessary to preserve this soul for the sake of future generations and give the descendants the opportunity to enjoy the view of this beautiful creature, as well as admire the mystical appearance of these majestic moths.

Hawk moths are a large family that includes 1,200 species of large and medium-sized butterflies. Because of their special way of feeding, they were nicknamed “northern hummingbirds.” One of the most prominent representatives of the family is the death's head hawk moth. Its wingspan reaches 130 mm, its body weight is 9 g. People’s close attention to the butterfly is explained by the unusual pattern on its chest. The yellow figure on a dark background resembles a human skull. The frightening picture gave rise to various superstitions associated with the moth.

Description of the species

The Death's Head butterfly or Adam's Head belongs to the order Lepidoptera, the hawk moth family. This is the second largest butterfly in Europe, after the pear peacock eye. In Russia, this is the largest representative of the hawk moth family.

Imago

The adult death's head hawk moth is large in size and has a distinctive appearance. The body is thick, fusiform, densely covered with hairs. The chest is brown or bluish-brown, on the back there is a yellow pattern in the form of a skull with empty eye sockets. In some specimens the pattern is unclear or completely absent. The front wings are elongated, their length is twice as long as their width. The wingspan of males is 90-115 mm, and that of females is 110-130 mm. The color of the wings is changeable, the intensity and location of spots and stripes vary.

Most often, the forewings are dark brown; they are divided into three fields by three blurry wavy yellow stripes. The hind wings are oblique, with a notch along the edge in front of the anal angle. The color is bright yellow with two wide black stripes located longitudinally. The outer band is wider and has a jagged edge. Interestingly, the color and width of the stripes can vary. Sometimes they turn brown or merge into one.

Interesting fact. In case of danger, the butterfly makes a piercing squeak. This is an extremely rare phenomenon for a representative of the order Lepidoptera; this is a rare ability. For a long time, the origin of the sound remained a mystery. Only at the beginning of the 20th century. scientist Heinrich Prell discovered that sound is produced by the vibration of the outgrowth of the insect's upper lip.

The head of the moth is black, the antennae are short, rod-shaped, they are sensory organs. On the sides of the head there are large, well-developed eyes. Unlike other hawk moths, the dead head has a short proboscis - 10-14 mm.

The abdomen is wide, ocher-yellow with black half-rings and a gray-blue longitudinal stripe. Sexual dimorphism is weakly expressed, but individuals can be distinguished by size and color - in males, the last 2-3 segments of the abdomen are black or gray-blue. The length of the abdomen is 60 mm, diameter – 20 mm.

Information. In males the abdomen is sharp, while in females it is rounded.

The insect's legs are short and thick. They are covered with four longitudinal rows of strong spines. Hind tibia with spurs. Strong and tenacious legs help the moth adhere to a certain lifestyle. During the day the butterfly is at rest. She sits on tree trunks or litter. Only in the evening does it fly off to find food.

Caterpillar

The death's head hawkmoth larva is quite large. An adult caterpillar is 12-15 cm long. There are individuals with different colors - green, yellow, brown. Lemon yellow is the most common option. A blue stripe runs obliquely across each body segment. Starting from the fourth segment, the back of the caterpillar is dotted with small black dots. On the sides there are larger black spots of a round shape. Specimens with a basic green color are decorated with darker green stripes. The horn in the back of the body is yellow, grainy and rough in structure. It has a double curved shape, similar to the Latin letter S.

Forage plants

The caterpillar and adult hawkmoth death's head are polyphages. Due to the short proboscis, butterflies do not feed on flower nectar. Their food is the sap of trees and damaged fruits. Nutrition is important not only for maintaining the life of the butterfly, but also affects the maturation of eggs in the female. With great pleasure, moths eat the honey of wild and domestic bees. They pierce the honeycomb and drink 5-15 g of sweet honey at a time. Hawkmoths have adapted to steal product from the hive. They are helped to pass guards by a dense cuticle that does not allow poison to pass through. To move freely in the hive, they use chemical camouflage.

Butterflies secrete chemicals that hide their scent and calm the bees. If problems arise, the hawk moth flees. The insect is little sensitive to bee venom. But when attacked by a swarm, the death of the butterfly is inevitable. The hawk moth is not capable of harming the apiary. Insects are found in single individuals, so they are not able to destroy the hive.

Interesting fact. Initially, the theory was considered that, for camouflage, the butterfly makes sounds similar to the queen bee leaving the cocoon. The version turned out to be erroneous, but many beekeepers believe in it.

Caterpillars prefer various types of plants from the nightshade family:

• potato;
• tomato;
• nightshade;
• dope;
• tobacco;
• belladonna.

In the absence of their preferred food, they move to honeysuckle, legumes, olives (lilac, jasmine), cabbage, dill, and hawthorn. Do not bypass fruit trees (plum, apple, pear).

Distribution area

The insect is distributed over a wide area, covering tropical Africa, the island of Madagascar, the Middle East, and the western part of the Palaearctic. The eastern border of distribution passes through Turkmenistan. The species is found in southern Europe, Turkey, Transcaucasia, and Crimea. On the territory of Russia it is seen in the southern and central regions of the European part of the country. Hawkmoth settles in open forests, in fields, prefers a cultivated landscape with shrubs. In the center of Europe it can be found in potato fields. In Transcaucasia it settles at the foot of the mountains at an altitude of up to 700 m.

Migration

The death's head butterfly is a migratory species. Every year, colonies of insects migrate from Africa and other tropical countries to the north. Temporary colonies are formed in new places. The duration of the flight and the border of distribution depend on weather conditions. In warm years, hawk moths migrate to Iceland. In Russia, migrant insects appear in St. Petersburg, in the south of Tyumen, and the Kola Peninsula.

Features of reproduction

In Africa, Acherontiaatropos live and breed all year round, generation after generation. In the Palearctic, butterflies give birth to two generations. In rare cases, during a long warm season - three. Moths are active in the dark, so mating occurs at night. During this period, they are especially attracted to artificial light sources. Fertilized females lay eggs on food plants. The eggs are round, slightly more than 1 mm in diameter. The color is greenish or bluish. There are 20-150 eggs in a clutch.

The hatched larva is light, almost white. In its development, it changes through five ages. The first instar caterpillar is 12 mm in size, light green, and has no characteristic pattern.

In the second instar, a horn appears, which appears large in relation to the body. The color of the outgrowth is brown.

The change of ages occurs after molting. The caterpillar becomes larger in size and new properties appear. By the third instar, the larva acquires a pattern of blue or purple stripes and black dots. Her horn lightens and becomes lumpy.

Larvae of the fourth instar grow to 40-50 mm, their body weight is 4 g. An interesting fact is that the caterpillars always eat the skin remaining after molting.

The fifth instar caterpillar is quite large, reaching 15 cm in length and weighing up to 22 g. It becomes less mobile. When there is a clear threat, the caterpillar bites, but its weak jaws are safe for humans.

The duration of the larval stage is up to 8 weeks. Then it pupates in an underground chamber at a depth of 15 cm. The pupa is smooth, initially yellow in color, then becomes reddish-brown. Pupae do not tolerate frost well; in cold winters with little snow they die en masse. Typically, population recovery is facilitated by migration of insects from the southern regions.

Tachinids, dipterous insects similar to flies, infect caterpillars with their eggs, laying them on food plants. The larvae live in the host's body, gradually eating its organs. Once fully formed, they come out.

Insect protection

In 1984, the death's head hawk moth was listed in the Red Book of the USSR. Today it is quite common and does not need special protection. The butterfly is excluded from the Red Book of Russia. In Ukraine, the insect is classified as a rare species, assigned category III and assigned a place in the Red Book. Most often you can find single individuals of hawk moth. The insect population fluctuates from year to year. The decrease in insect numbers is associated with various factors:

• changes in weather conditions;
• chemical treatment of forage plants;
• uprooting bushes;
• destruction of habitual habitats.

The most favorable situation with the population is in Transcaucasia. The winters here are mild, so the pupae can easily tolerate them. The rarity of the species in other regions is associated with the massive treatment of potato fields with insecticides. Hawkmoth caterpillars die in the process of baiting the Colorado potato beetle. Reproduction of the species occurs only on wild crops of the nightshade family. To preserve the species in the fauna of the Russian Federation, educational work is carried out among schoolchildren about the inadmissibility of extermination of large caterpillars and other insects.

Superstitions and legends

The Latin name of the species, Acherontiaatropos, is associated with Greek myths. Acheron is one of the rivers of the underworld, this word means horror. Atropos is inevitable death, the name of one of the goddesses of fate. The Russian version of the name “Dead Head” is associated with the design of the skull; in many European countries the butterfly is called by this characteristic feature.

The unusual coloring of the butterfly has given rise to many superstitions and myths. She was considered a harbinger of various misfortunes and troubles: wars, epidemics, ruin. In some regions of France, they still believe that a moth scale caught in the eye can cause blindness. Hawkmoth the death's head became the main character of Edgar Allan Poe's story "The Sphinx". An interesting story connects the butterfly and the artist Van Gogh. In 1889, inspired by the unusual appearance of the insect, he painted the painting “Death's Head Hawkmoth.” But the master was mistaken; he depicted a small peacock-eye on the canvas.

Among the insects found in Russia, the largest is the “death’s head” hawk moth. The thickness of its body reaches 2 cm, length - 6 cm, and wingspan - 13 cm. This arthropod can hardly even be called an insect. She rather looks like a bird or a winged beast. The death's head butterfly has long inspired fear in people. There are many legends associated with it. Whether to believe them or not, everyone decides for themselves.

Beliefs associated with a butterfly

It is believed that a meeting with a “death’s head” foreshadows the death of one of the family members. To prevent this from happening, the butterfly should be killed.

If a scale from a hawk moth's wing gets into the eye, it will lead to inevitable blindness and quick death.

In 1733, an epidemic in France wiped out thousands of lives. The superstitious French associated the arrival of misfortune with the appearance of a “death’s head” in these places.

Is it possible that the “death’s head” hawk moth is a butterfly that brings death, disease, war, epidemics, devastation and hunger? Of course, this is a monstrous heresy, although impressionable people still attribute such properties to a large insect. But butterflies are not even carriers of diseases dangerous to humans, unlike lice and many mammals.

Mystical butterfly in literature and cinema

Fear of her was also fueled by writers. Thus, a science fiction writer described a winged lepidoptera in the story “The Death’s Head,” giving the butterfly a fictitious gigantic size, and Edgar Allan Poe, famous for his mystical short stories, used this butterfly in “The Sphinx” to instill more fear in the main character. Susan Hill, in the Gothic novel I Am the King of the Castle, instilled terror in one of the characters using the anatomical features of an insect.

Filmmakers have more than once included hawk moth in thriller scripts to deepen the atmosphere of fear.

In The Silence of the Lambs, a homicidal maniac places a hawkmoth pupa in the mouths of his victims. He hopes that this will help fulfill his desire to turn into a woman.

Ole Bornedal showed a cluster of hawkmoth butterflies in one of the episodes of the thriller “The Box of Damnation,” released in 2012.

Origin and meaning of the name

The "death's head" hawkmoth is referred to in Latin as acherontia atropos in classifier atlases. Acheron is one of the five rivers of the kingdom of the dead. The ancients used the same word to designate a deep and terrible underworld. "Atropa" is translated as "inevitability, inevitable fate." This name is borne by one of the three moiras, the one that breaks the thread of a person’s life.

In common parlance among many peoples, a drawing with empty eye sockets and two bones evokes the same associations and is expressed in a similar way. That’s why they call it almost the same everywhere - the “death’s head” butterfly or the “head of Adam”.

The cry of a butterfly is another reason for fear

The reason for human fear is also the fact that the hawk moth is capable of emitting a piercing thin cry, similar to a squeak. And he does it with his head, or rather with his mouth. This is not typical for insects. Grasshoppers or cicadas, which entertain our ears in the summer with chirping, produce it with their feet, and the hawk moth does it with its mouth. His hearing organs are also located on his head.

Is an uninvited guest a sign of trouble?

Another reason for the signs was that the “death’s head” butterfly is not an indigenous and permanent resident of the European continent. Its homeland and permanent habitat is North Africa. It is not always chosen for the countries of Strict Light. This depends on weather conditions, climate change, etc. There is no exact information on this matter. However, every year butterflies migrate to the northern regions. In other years, they reach Iceland to the north and Iran to the east. On the territory of Russia, the “death’s head” butterfly was found in Karelia, near Petrozavodsk and St. Petersburg. Much more often she visits the Kaluga, Moscow, Penza, Smolensk, Saratov, Astrakhan and Volgograd regions, as well as the Krasnodar Territory and the Caucasus. Some sources indicate that the hawk moth was observed even in Siberia - in the south of the Tyumen region. In the second generation, female hawk moths are sterile, and the population can only be renewed due to a new wave of migrants.

What drives these amazing animals from their homes? Probably, it is not a desire to bring information about impending disasters, but a banal search for food.

What does a scary butterfly eat?

What does the death's head butterfly eat? Its favorite foods are flower nectar and sweet tree sap. If she comes across juicy fruits, she will drink their juice, although she prefers liquid, syrupy food. On the island of Madagascar, hawk moths pollinate orchids, since some species of this butterfly have a proboscis longer than one and a half centimeters. Unlike other insects, which are also flower pollinators, the hawk moth cannot freeze in flight over an object. He needs solid support. Such support and a large amount of nectar are found in bee hives. “Death's head” is a butterfly, designed by nature itself to eat honey from hives. The sound she makes is identical to the one that bees hear from the new queen emerging from the cocoon. Interestingly, it can be heard not only from a butterfly, but also from a pupa and a caterpillar. Bees, hearing their soothing squeak, do not perceive the hawk moth as an enemy and robber. However, sometimes they still expose the uninvited guest. There have been cases where bees have stung hawk moth to death, although it can withstand up to three bee stings without harm to its health.

Scary demon of the night

If you look at the photographs, the hawk moth with its wings spread does not make a frightening impression at all. What does a “dead head” butterfly look like at night? After all, the hawk moth is a night butterfly. You can meet her at dusk, when the sun is setting. Until midnight, huge insects circle in the light of street lamps or other sources of artificial light. These are mating dances of adult males and females. An unusually beautiful, albeit very rare sight. What does the death's head hawk moth look like in night light? Very impressive - on the black velvet body the head of a dead man with empty eye sockets and a hole instead of a nose clearly appears. Superstitious horror will bind anyone, not just an exalted person with a subtle psyche. As the saying goes: “Everyone wants to go to heaven, but no one wants to die.” Nevertheless, you should not be afraid of the hawk moth.

This species of butterfly has already suffered a lot from people. They are periodically listed in the Red Book as an endangered species. Being nocturnal animals, they do not cause any harm, and there is a long-proven method against penetration into hives. Beekeepers protect their honey from uninvited guests with bars with holes no larger than one and a half centimeters. Bees and drones pass through them easily, but not hawk moths. These sweet tooths are too fat.

Caterpillars

In addition to apiaries, hawk moths can be found in fields. In the old days, females laid eggs in potato beds. Their larvae happily fed on the juicy tops. After the fields began to be massively cultivated against them, hawkmoths stopped placing their offspring there. Caterpillars of the “dead head” butterfly can feed on the foliage of other plants from the nightshade family - tomatoes, physalis, eggplant, nightshade, datura, belladonna. Being polyphagous, the larvae of the “death’s head” also eat the green tops of carrots, beets, and other root vegetables. They can live in gardens, consuming leaves and shrubs. During this period, they cause very significant damage to agriculture.

The butterfly lays bluish or greenish eggs in the axils between the leaves and trunk of these plants, and also sticks to the underside of the leaves. The eggs range in size from 1.2 to 1.5 mm. The first instar larvae are covered with sparse hairs and are no longer than 1.2 cm, and the last, fifth, already reach 15 cm and weigh up to 22 g. At the rear end of the caterpillar there is a growth shaped like a horn. Hawkmoth larvae are very beautiful. They are bright green with oblique dark stripes. They are easy to miss among the leaves. There are species with a yellow-green color and even white-blue.

To pupate, the caterpillars burrow into the ground to a depth of 40 cm. Periodically, they crawl to the surface to feed. The caterpillar lives for about eight weeks before entering the pupa state. The pupae transform into a butterfly within a month. Shortly before leaving, they begin to make sounds characteristic of this species of arthropod. Female hawk moths are larger in size and rounded in shape compared to males. The color of male specimens contains more black, the pattern is sharper and more expressive. Usually, two life cycles of this type of insect occur in a year, but in a good, especially warm summer, hawk moths are able to increase their reproduction cycle up to three times.

The colors of butterflies and larvae vary, as there are more than 1,200 species of hawk moth. And the “dead head” itself, that is, a butterfly with a corresponding pattern on the body, also has a lot of varieties.

Hawkmoth is an integral part of biogeocenosis

The death's head butterfly makes a significant contribution to the overall ecosystem of our planet. Large individuals pollinate plants with a pistil located deep inside the flower. Other insects cannot cope with this job. Hawk moths provide protein food for a variety of fauna - during the daytime, the sleepy nocturnal hawk moth is an easy prey for many mammals and birds.

The death's head butterfly (lat. Acherontia atropos) belongs to the Hawkmoth family (Sphingidae). It has a characteristic skull-shaped pattern on its back, which is the reason for its name. It is also called Adam's head.

The species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758 as Sphinx atropos. He gave it a Latin name in honor of the ancient Greek goddess of fate Atropa. In 1809, the German zoologist Jacob Laspeers assigned the butterfly to the newly formed genus Acherontia, pointing to the Acheron River in the underworld of Hades.

In many cultures, this harmless insect is considered a symbol of death.

In England, there is a widespread belief that it is friends with witches and confidentially whispers in their ears the names of people who will soon die. Many African tribes are of the opinion that the death's head is poisonous and its bite is fatal. In most European countries, a butterfly accidentally flying into a house is considered a harbinger of great misfortunes.

Spreading

The habitat of this species occupies the tropical and subtropical regions of Africa, the Middle East and the Mediterranean Sea basin. It migrates in large numbers to Europe, mainly to the west of the continent. In some years it even reaches the Arctic Circle and is occasionally observed in Central Asia.

The butterfly is capable of flying thousands of kilometers at altitudes up to 2500 m above sea level. If summer in Europe turns out to be quite warm and long, then the new generation migrates south on the eve of autumn.

Insects prefer well-warmed and sunlit areas. They are attracted to open landscapes overgrown with grass or shrubs and located mainly in lowlands. Butterflies can often be seen in deciduous forests. In the foothills they are rarely observed at altitudes above 700 m.

Behavior

The death's head is nocturnal. During the day, the butterfly rests on tree trunks or stumps, completely merging with the texture of the tree bark from afar. Up close, its color is quite effective at repelling predators who associate it with hornets or wasps.

Representatives of this species have the ability to make whistling sounds, somewhat reminiscent of a mouse squeak or a queen bee emerging from a cocoon. They are formed with the help of a proboscis and air passing through the pharynx, strongly compressed by the muscular walls. At the same time, the entrance to the digestive tract is closed, leaving only the oral cavity open.

The air passes through the epipharynx (a chitinous plate that forms the upper wall of the oral cavity). Thanks to its rhythmic compression, sound waves with a frequency of 6-8 thousand hertz appear. Approximately 280 pulses per second are used to modulate the carrier signal.

Butterflies make sounds when you touch them. Males become especially “talkative” near females or when approaching light sources. Disturbed insects flap their wings, make noise, jump, but do not fly away, but try to hide in a crevice in the bark or under branches. When attacked too much, males release a mushroom-smelling substance from glands located on the second segment of the abdomen.

Nutrition

Adults go in search of food at dusk and remain active until midnight. They fly around the flowers of potatoes, tobacco, carnations, honeysuckle, hydrangea and citrus crops. Due to the structure of their proboscis, they do not feed on flower nectar, but feed on plant sap flowing from their damaged fragments. Most often they are attracted to fruits and berries that are beginning to spoil.

An important source of food is the nests of honey bees (Apis melifera).

Dead heads penetrate them to feed on the nectar and honey already collected. Worker bees, as a rule, do not show any aggression towards them. Butterflies secrete chemicals that suppress their aggressiveness. They are a mixture of palmitoleic, palmitic, stearic and oleic acids in proportions similar to bee secretions. Having the same smell as them, butterflies are not perceived as strangers.

Sometimes bees recognize aliens, but dead heads are little affected by their venom. Even 4-5 bee stings do not affect their health in any way. At first they try not to move and not attract attention to themselves, and then, having dulled the vigilance of the inhabitants of the hive, they stick their proboscis into the honeycombs and feast on honey. In one sitting, a consumer can eat up to 15 g of a high-calorie product.

Reproduction

Adam's head butterflies undergo a complete metamorphosis in their development from eggs to adults. After their birth from the pupa, they are ready for procreation within 12-14 hours.

Fertilized females lay one egg on the lower part of the leaves of food plants, mainly from the Solanaceae family. In addition to nightshade, potatoes, tobacco, tomatoes and eggplants, their caterpillars eat the leaves of viburnum, elderberry, dill, carrots, cabbage, oleander, hemp, beets, jasmine, buddleia, hibiscus, nettle and many other plants.

On average, the female lays 150, maximum 200 eggs within 1-5 weeks.

The eggs are oval in shape (1.2x1.5 mm) and colored light green. The body length of hatched caterpillars is about 12 mm. They are lemon-colored, chartreuse, or green; the most rare caterpillars are brownish in color with transverse white stripes. After 5 molts, the caterpillars grow up to 15 cm and weigh about 20 g.

Pupation occurs at approximately 8 weeks of age in the soil at a depth of 15-40 cm. The caterpillar independently digs a hole with an egg-shaped chamber at the very bottom. The pupa usually has a shiny cream color and a length of 75-80 mm, occasionally up to 120 mm. The insect stays in the pupal stage for about a month. In the southern regions of the Alps, it remains there for the winter, and the adult appears in early spring.

Description

The wingspan ranges from 80 to 120 mm. The body length is about 60 mm, and its diameter is 18-22 mm. A long and strong proboscis (up to 15 mm) is used to extract honey from bee honeycombs.

The forewings have a dark gray background with whitish spots with black jagged edges. The hind wings are approximately 2 times smaller and yellowish in color with dark stripes. On the thorax there is a drawing with the outlines of a human skull.

Females are slightly larger than males. Weight ranges from 2 to 8 g. The head and thorax are brown-black, the abdomen can be blue-brown or ocher. The limbs are small and thick. The antennae are rod-shaped.

The lifespan of the adult death's head butterfly is 1-2 months.

In appearance, it rather resembles a bird or an “winged” animal. This is the largest insect that inhabits the expanses of Russia and the largest of the family of hawk moths: with a body thickness of 2 cm, its length is more than 6 cm, and its wingspan reaches 13 cm. The name itself: “death's head” inspires fear, and then there are various legends and myths about him. You can believe them, or you can laugh at them, but told at night, they are impressive.

Is Death's Head Hawk Moth responsible for epidemics?

“Not with us, but it was...”

Many people are sure: if you see a “death’s head” - kill immediately, before someone in the family dies! And if a scale from its wing gets into the eye, the person will first go blind, and then completely die.

France. The year is 1733. Thousands of people in the country died in the “black smallpox” epidemic. Who was declared the culprit of the tragedy? Of course, "death's head"! The French, full of superstitions, began to see her often shortly before the outbreak of the epidemic.

Can this really large insect be the sower of death, wars, famine, disease, epidemics and destruction? After all, a butterfly is not a louse that carries typhus, nor a flea that carries plague, nor a cow infected with anthrax. Therefore, all the stories about fatal meetings with her on the eve of trouble are just a figment of a sick imagination. Or a way to impress a timid person.

Hawkmoth butterfly in cinema and literature

Literature and cinema mystify anything

The fear of the “death’s head” has always been skillfully inflated by writers. Science fiction writer Alexander Belyaev, in a story of the same name, describes this lepidopteran creature as a monster (many consider a dragonfly to be a “miracle”) of incredibly large size.

Edgar Poe, in his mystical novella “The Sphinx,” drove his main character almost to madness, taking advantage of the properties of this animal.

Susan Hill, who wrote the Gothic novel I Am the King of the Castle, also used the insect's anatomy to allow one character to bully another.

Filmmakers also made their contribution to instilling fear in the gullible man in the street, repeatedly using this hawk moth as the main character in “horror films.”

"Silence of the Lambs". Here, a murderous maniac, hoping that in this way his desire to become a woman will come true, stuffs a hawkmoth pupa into the mouths of his victims.

With the thriller “The Box of Damnation” (the year it appeared on screens in 2012), Ole Bornedal also seeks to intimidate viewers by showing a huge crowd of hawk moth butterflies, depicting one of the film episodes with them.

Why was the hawk moth given such a name?

Doomed name

Acherontia atropos. Entomological atlases unanimously translate this Latin name of the butterfly as “death's head.”

To be completely precise, the first part of the name is given by the name of the river. But Acheron is not only one of the rivers in the kingdom of the dead (there are five in total). The ancient name of the deep and incredibly terrible underworld sounds the same.

The word Atropa also means not only “irreversibility, irreparability of fate.” This is also the name of one of the moiras, the three goddesses of fate, it is she who breaks the thread of life of a person doomed to death.

The image of a skull with empty eye sockets and two crossed bones gives rise to the same images among different peoples, which their simple speech describes in the same words. That’s why this butterfly is called the same everywhere: either “death’s head” or “Adam’s head”.

Hawkmoth - a butterfly that makes sounds

Hawk Moth's "cry" is not a reason to be afraid

The ability of this butterfly to produce a piercingly thin sound - a “scream” similar to a squeak. Another reason for people to be afraid of her. Cicadas and grasshoppers produce their summer chirping, which amuses our ears in the summer, with their feet, while the hawk moth creates sounds with its head (of course, a real one, and not the one in the picture), or rather, with its mouth, which is completely unusual for insects. The organs that perceive the emitted sound are also located on the head of the “death’s head”.

The guest is uninvited - expect trouble?

Superstitions about the hawk moth rest on another basis - the “non-local” origin of the butterfly: the “death’s head” is a fickle, non-indigenous inhabitant of the continent of Eurasia. Her homeland and area of ​​​​permanent residence is North Africa; in the countries of the Old World, if fate turns out well, she has nothing to do.

Where is the death's head hawkmoth found?

But the climate and weather change, and, although not every year, the butterflies are tempted to make a voyage to more northern territories. Not all, but some sphinxes (aka hawk moths) succumb to it, flying under favorable conditions even to Iceland in the north and Iran in the east.

The northernmost finds of the “death’s head” on Russian territory were Petrozavodsk (the capital of Karelia) and St. Petersburg. The regions of Moscow, Kaluga, Smolensk, Penza, Saratov, Volgograd and Astrakhan, the Caucasus and Krasnodar Territory are visited by this species of hawkmoth much more often.

According to some sources, the “phenomenon” of this butterfly has been recorded even in the south of the Tyumen region, in Siberia. But the second generation of females of these hawk moths is already infertile, so the population can only be brought back to life by waiting for a new wave of migrants from the south.

What makes these strange creatures leave their homeland? Most likely they do this for the most banal reason - food. There may be another reason here, but it is unlikely that this is a desire to be branded as harbingers of trouble.