Big brown caterpillar with eyes. Types of caterpillars with photos and names. Pine marching silkworm

Sometimes on dill we meet a large green caterpillar with bright black stripes and orange spots. Previously, I ruthlessly crushed them. But recently I found out that this is a caterpillar of a swallowtail butterfly. And killing them immediately became a pity.

Swallowtail is listed in the Red Book of many countries

Why machaon - machaon?

We got used to the idea that the brightest and most unusual animals live somewhere in distant lands. Our swallowtail, which belongs to the family of sailboats, is not inferior to many “Tropicans” by the brightness of the pattern and the sophistication of forms, but it has become less and less common. About 80 years ago, the caterpillars of these butterflies were considered malicious pests of cultivated plants, so they waged a merciless fight with him. Therefore, the number of swallowtails has declined sharply and today they are listed in the Red Book, and not only in our country, but also in many European countries.

The swallowtail got its name from the famous Swedish systematizer Carl Linnaeus. He named the butterfly in honor of the outstanding surgeon of antiquity, who participated in the Greek campaign against Troy. It is borrowed from ancient Greek mythology: Machaon was the name of one of the two sons of the Thessalian king and physician Asclepius (Aesculapius, later the god of healing). This name is found in Ovid, Virgil, ancient authors wrote about the "swallowtail craft", "swallowtail potion".

Butterfly

Of our diurnal butterflies, the swallowtail is the largest. Its wingspan sometimes reaches ten centimeters. It feeds on the nectar of flowers. This butterfly is in flight all the time. Even when she sits on a flower, she continues to flap her wings. The mating games of bright swallowtails resemble intricate dances in flight.

After courtship, the female lays eggs on a fodder plant: on a stem or leaf. In total, one female is able to lay about 120 eggs during the breeding season. During its short life (only 20 days), the butterfly lays eggs twice.

The caterpillar feeds mainly on flowers and seeds of plants, less often on leaves.

Caterpillar

After 7 days, a swallowtail caterpillar hatches from the egg - it is very bright and very voracious, it can eat a bed of dill in a day.

The bright colors give it a formidable look. When irritated or threatened, the caterpillar puts out orange "horns" called osmetria, releasing an orange-yellow liquid with a pungent, unpleasant odor. Only young and middle-aged caterpillars protect themselves in this way; adult caterpillars do not put forward their iron in case of danger.

The caterpillar of the swallowtail clings quite tightly to the stems and does not fall, even if the stem is cut off and taken to another place.

It does not climb trees, does not eat up roots. Forage plants are various umbrella plants, in particular - hogweed, carrots, dill, parsley, fennel, celery, cumin. Can eat Amur velvet or alder. It prefers to eat flowers and ovaries, less often leaves of plants. By the end of its development, the caterpillar hardly feeds.

When irritated or threatened, the caterpillar puts out orange "horns".

chrysalis

Pupation occurs on the stems of host plants or on neighboring plants. The color of the pupa depends on the season - summer pupae are green or yellowish, covered with small black dots. Wintering brown in color, with a black head end and thick horns on the head.

So is it a pest or not?

Now it is difficult to say how tangible the damage caused by the swallowtail to cultivated plants. Plowing land, grazing, mowing, the use of pesticides - all this is a real ecological disaster for the swallowtail and many other insects. And now you can rarely meet this caterpillar in our beds. Kill it or give it the opportunity to develop into a beautiful butterfly - it's up to you.

Today, scientists from different countries are making attempts to artificially breed rare, endangered swallowtails, in order to then release them into nature. British experts tried to restore the population of the swallowtail, which disappeared in one of the swampy areas of Cambridgeshire due to land drainage in the 1950s. Eggs laid by butterflies in the laboratory were transferred here, having previously planted about 2 thousand bushes of the fodder plant of bitterwort. The experiment, alas, was unsuccessful.

However, in the same place, in the UK, thanks to the experiments of the biologist K. Clark in the laboratory, a large number of adult butterflies were brought out within 1-2 seasons. This gives hope that our children and grandchildren will still be able to admire the aerial dances of the beautiful swallowtail.

A caterpillar is a larva of a butterfly, moth or moth - insects from the Lepidoptera order.

Caterpillar - description, characteristics, structure and photo. What does a caterpillar look like?

torso

The length of the caterpillar, in accordance with the variety, varies from a few millimeters to 12 cm, as in individual specimens of the Saturnia butterfly (peacock-eye).

The body of the caterpillar consists of a well-defined head, thoracic, abdominal sections and several pairs of limbs located on the chest and abdomen.

Head

The head of the caterpillar is represented by six fused segments that form a rigid capsule. Between the forehead and the eyes, the cheek area is conditionally distinguished, at the bottom of the head there is an occipital foramen, which looks like a heart.

The round head shape is typical for most caterpillars, although there are exceptions. For example, many hawks have a triangle-shaped head, while other species have a rectangular-shaped head. The parietal parts can strongly protrude above the head, forming a kind of “horns”. Small antennae, consisting of 3 consecutive joints, grow on the sides of the head.

oral apparatus

All caterpillars are distinguished by a gnawing type of mouth apparatus. The upper jaws of the insect are well formed: their upper edge contains denticles designed for nibbling or tearing food. Inside there are tubercles that perform the function of chewing food. The salivary glands are transformed into specific spinning (silk-releasing) glands.

Eyes

The eyes of caterpillars are a primitive visual apparatus containing a single lens. Usually several simple eyes are located one after another, in an arc, or they form 1 compound eye, fused from 5 simple ones. Plus 1 eye is located inside this arc. Thus, in total, caterpillars have 5-6 pairs of eyes.

torso

The body of the caterpillar consists of segments separated by grooves and is dressed in a soft shell, which provides the body with maximum mobility. The anus is surrounded by special lobes with varying degrees of development.

The respiratory organ of insects, the spiracle, is a stigma located on the chest. Only in species living in water, spiracles are replaced by tracheal gills.

Most caterpillars have 3 pairs of thoracic limbs and 5 pairs of false ventral legs. The ventral limbs end in small hooks. On each thoracic limb there is a sole with a claw, which the caterpillar retracts or protrudes when moving.

Absolutely naked caterpillars do not exist: the body of each is covered with various formations - outgrowths, hairs or a well-grown cuticle. Cuticle growths are star-shaped, spikes or granules that look like small hairs or bristles. Moreover, the bristles grow in a strictly defined way, characteristic of a particular family, genus, and even species. Outgrowths consist of relief skin formations-tubercles, similar to flat, round or oval warts and spines. Caterpillar hairs are represented by thin individual threads or bundles.

life in a cocoon

In order to survive during the period of "inactivity" and defenselessness, the caterpillars find a suitable leaf, branch or tree trunk, to which they can quietly "stick" with a strong silk thread, which they secrete from the abdomen.

To understand how a caterpillar turns into butterflies, you should delve into its ability to properly prepare yourself for this.

Having stuck to the chosen surface, the caterpillar hangs on a silk thread and begins to wrap itself around the calf with it. This happens gradually, but what is important, when wrapping, the caterpillar gives its cocoon a look similar to a leaf, bud or stem of a plant chosen by it.

The resemblance is so obvious that only a very observant eye can spot the cocoon on its surface. This is done so that the defenseless caterpillar is not found and eaten.

How a caterpillar turns into a butterfly inside a cocoon can only be seen by taking pictures with special equipment in the laboratory. This process is so slow and secretive that it is impossible to observe it in nature.

The reserves that the caterpillar managed to lay aside in its body are quite enough for the strength to metamorphose it into a butterfly.

Types of caterpillars - photos and names

Among the great variety of different caterpillars, the following varieties are of greatest interest:

• Cabbage caterpillar or cabbage moth caterpillar(cabbage white) (lat. Pieris brassicae) lives throughout Eastern Europe, northern Africa to the Japanese islands, and also brought to South America. The caterpillar is 3.5 cm long, has 16 legs and is distinguished by a light green body covered with black warts and short black hairs. Depending on the weather, the caterpillar stage lasts from 13 to 38 days. These caterpillars feed on cabbage, horseradish, radish, turnip, turnip, and shepherd's purse. They are considered the main pest of cabbage.

• Caterpillar moth (surveyors)(lat. Geometridae) is characterized by a long thin body and undeveloped abdominal legs, due to which it differs in an original way of movement - it bends in a loop, while pulling the abdominal legs to the chest ones. The family unites more than 23 thousand species of moths distributed throughout the world. All types of caterpillars of this family have well-developed muscles, therefore they are able to strengthen themselves vertically on plants, perfectly imitating broken branches and petioles. The color of the caterpillars is similar to the color of the foliage or bark, which is additionally an excellent camouflage. They eat tree needles, currants and hazel.

• Great harpy caterpillar(lat. Cerura vinula = Dicranura vinula) lives throughout Europe, Central Asia and northern Africa. Adult caterpillars grow up to 6 cm and are distinguished by a green body with a purple rhombus on the back, bordered by a white outline. In case of danger, the caterpillar inflates, assumes a threatening posture and sprays out a caustic substance. In the caterpillar stage, the insect stays from the beginning of summer to September, feeds on the leaves of plants from the willow, poplar family, including common aspen.

• Redtail caterpillar(shy woolly paws) (lat. Calliteara pudibunda) is found in the forest-steppe zone throughout Eurasia, as well as in Asia Minor and Central Asia. The caterpillar up to 5 cm long is pinkish, brown or gray. The body is densely covered with individual hairs or tufts of hairs, at the end there is a tail of protruding crimson hairs. This is a poisonous caterpillar: when in contact with human skin, it causes a painful allergy. These caterpillars eat the foliage of various trees and shrubs, especially preferring hops.

• Silkworm caterpillar(lat. Bombyx mori) or silkworm. Lives in East Asia: in the north of China and in Russia, in the southern regions of Primorye. The length of the caterpillar is 6-7 cm, its wavy body is densely covered with blue and brown hairy warts. After 4 molts, completing the 32-day development cycle, the color of the caterpillar turns yellow. The food of the silkworm caterpillar is exclusively mulberry leaves. This insect has been actively used in sericulture since the 27th century BC. e.

• Corrosive tree caterpillar(lat. Zeuzera pyrina) from the woodworm family. It is found on the territory of all European countries, except for the Far North, as well as in South Africa, Southeast Asia and North America. Winters twice, during which time it changes color from yellow-pink to yellow-orange with black, glossy warts. The length of the insect is 5-6 cm. Caterpillars live inside the branches and trunks of various trees, feeding on their juices.

• Lady Bear Caterpillar(lat. Callimorpha dominula) or she-bear-girl lives in Eastern and Western Europe and in southeast Asia. Winters 1 time, differs in black-blue color with yellow stripes and specks. Lives on nettles, geraniums, willows, raspberries, strawberries, and feeds on them.

• Swallowtail caterpillar(lat. Papilio machaon) lives throughout Europe, Asia, northern Africa and North America. One of the most colorful caterpillars: at first black, with scarlet warts, and as it grows, it becomes green with black transverse stripes. Each strip contains 6-8 red-orange spots. A disturbed caterpillar secretes an odorous orange-yellow liquid. It feeds on carrots, celery, wormwood, parsley, and sometimes alder leaves.

• The smallest caterpillar in the world is a member of the moth family. For example, the caterpillars of the clothes moth (lat. Tineola bisselliella), which have just emerged from the egg, reach a length of only 1 mm.

• The biggest caterpillar in the world- this is the caterpillar of the peacock-eye atlas (lat. Attacus atlas). The bluish-green caterpillar, as if powdered with white dust, grows up to 12 cm in length.

Poisonous caterpillars - description, types and photos.

Among the caterpillars there are quite poisonous specimens, so the bite of such a caterpillar or an accidental touch to it can cause unpleasant sensations. Usually such contact ends with pain at the point of contact, redness and swelling of the skin, less often an itchy rash may appear. There are frequent cases of drowsiness, headache, gastrointestinal disorders, increased blood pressure and temperature. In a word, do not be deceived by the bright and spectacular appearance of these creatures - sometimes they are dangerous.

The most famous poisonous caterpillars, ready to defend themselves from enemies and protect their food from encroachment with the help of a "poisonous cocktail", include:

• Coquette caterpillar (lat. Megalopyge opercularis)
• Saddle caterpillar (lat. Sibine stimulea)
• Caterpillar "burning rose" (lat. Parasa indetermina)
• Spiny oak slug caterpillar (lat. Euclea delphinii)
• Cross bear caterpillar (lat. Tyria jacobaeae)
• Caterpillar of the marching silkworm (lat. Thaumetopoea pityocampa)
• Hickory bear caterpillar (lat. Lophocampa caryae)
• Caterpillar “lazy clown” (lat. Lonomia obliqua)
• Caterpillar Saturnia Maya (lat. Hemileuca maia)
• Volnyanka caterpillar (lat. Orgyia leucostigma)

Poison caterpillar(lat. Megalopyge opercularis) is an insect that looks quite cute and resembles a miniature furry animal. However, this caterpillar is one of the most poisonous caterpillars found on the North American continent and Mexico. The color of the "fur coat", under which there are poisonous spikes, varies from light gray to golden or red-brown. The length of the caterpillar does not exceed three centimeters, the width of the body is 1 cm, but even such a modest size makes it very dangerous. After contact with an insect, after a couple of minutes, an acute throbbing pain and a noticeable reddening of the skin integuments appear at the point of contact, up to bruising. Later, there is a painful enlargement of the lymph nodes, shortness of breath and chest pain.

saddle caterpillar(lat. Sibine stimulea) - a bright green caterpillar, both ends of the body are brown, the middle of the body has a brownish spot enclosed in a white border, which makes this area look like a saddle. The length of the caterpillar, which lives in North and South America, is 2-3 centimeters, two pairs of fleshy horns-outgrowths are equipped with hard hairs, which contain a rather strong poison. A prick of these hairy stings causes severe pain, swelling of the skin, rash and nausea that lasts for several days.

Poisonous caterpillar "lazy clown"(lat. Lonomia obliqua) - an insect that massively lives in Uruguay and Mozambique, has the most powerful of all natural toxins known today. The caterpillar can reach 6-7 centimeters in length, has a greenish-brown color, and the poison accumulates in herringbone-shaped spikes. He loves shade, so usually the caterpillar lives in the foliage of trees, but often moves into the courtyards of the residential sector. As a result of contact with this insect, painful hemorrhages appear on the skin, caterpillar venom can affect the internal organs, causing renal colic, bleeding in the gastrointestinal tract, pulmonary edema, and even disorders of the nervous system.

Fighting caterpillars: means and methods.

Many species of caterpillars are pests and eat fruit trees, fruits and vegetables.

To combat caterpillars, there are many methods combined into 3 main groups:

• mechanical means of struggle with caterpillars, folk methods consist in manually collecting and shaking caterpillars from plants, as well as cutting wintering clutches. Trapping caterpillars with the help of trapping glue belts and various traps with bait liquid is considered a proven method.
• biological control methods aimed at attracting natural enemies of caterpillars, primarily birds. To do this, comfortable conditions are created in the gardens for their nesting (birdhouses, nest boxes, feeders) and with a small number of caterpillars are completely destroyed.
• chemical control methods with caterpillars are considered the most effective, but caterpillars are addictive, so poisonous drugs (biological and chemical) should be alternated. Rovikurt, Karbofos, Lepidocide, Kilzar, Karate are considered to be excellent means.

If the invasion of caterpillars is not significantly threatening, as a struggle, you can try decoctions and infusions of plants: black henbane (against cabbage caterpillar), hemlock (against all leaf-eating caterpillars), as well as red elderberry and pepper knotweed.

• Entomophagy, or the eating of insects, has flourished since prehistoric times. Caterpillars of more than 80 genera of butterflies take pride of place in the gourmet menu. Caterpillars are eaten raw or fried, dried on hot coals, boiled, salted, added to omelettes and sauces.
• The silkworm is of great economic importance for a number of silk-producing countries. After all, 9 kg of silk thread can be isolated from 100 kg of cocoons.
• The coloring of any caterpillar imitates environmental conditions to one degree or another and is the best means of camouflage and protection.

Video

Butterflies, Lepidoptera, whose fossils have been known since the Jurassic, are currently one of the most species-rich orders of insects - there are more than 158,000 species in the order. Representatives of the detachment are distributed on all continents, with the exception of Antarctica.

Butterflies go through four stages of development: egg, larva, pupa and adult. It is believed that a butterfly always surpasses in beauty the caterpillar from which it was born.

Let's see if that's the case. Interactive photos.

This is a night butterfly of the Corydalis family. Caterpillar stage: June - September. Adult caterpillar up to 6 cm long, green. Being disturbed, it takes a special threatening posture: it inflates and lifts the anterior end of the body, then pulling it into the enlarged first segment of the abdomen. Click:

They live in deciduous and mixed forests. Caterpillars feed on various broad-leaved trees, such as oak, elm, citrus. Click:

Papilio troilus is a North American sailboat, the closest relative of our swallowtail and podaliria. The adult is black with iridescence and an elegant pattern of white spots, and the caterpillars are unusually funny: green or yellow with bright fake eyes that scare away predators. Caterpillars feed on various types of bay leaves. Click:

The peacock-eyed atlas is considered one of the largest butterflies in the world. Wingspan up to 24 cm! In India, this species is cultivated: caterpillars secrete silk. Click:

This species is found from Mexico to Argentina, in humid forests. The wingspan of Greta oto is from 5.5 to 6 cm. The tissue between the veins on the wings of a butterfly is transparent, because it is devoid of colored scales. Click:

The wingspan of this butterfly is 6 to 9 cm. The female has reddish-brown forewings and tarsi, while the male has yellow forewings, hindwings, body and tarsi. Click:

This is a genus of diurnal butterflies from the Nymphalidae family. The color of the wings of most species is blue or blue, with a metallic sheen. There are species with wings of mother-of-pearl and pearl-white color; with black and blue or red and brown pattern. Shiny with a metallic reflection of the wings, the color is entirely optical, it is based on the refraction of light. Click:

Another butterfly of the genus Real sailboats of the Sailboat family. Found throughout North America, including Canada, the United States, and Mexico. This is a large butterfly with a wingspan of 8-11 cm. The upper side of the wings is mostly black. Caterpillars in the first phases of development (up to 1.5 cm in length) are black with a white stripe in the middle, with white bristles that have a light brown ring at the base. Click:

The largest moth in North America and one of the most colorful. Usually at the end of autumn, after four molts, the cecropian caterpillars, which have grown to 10-12 cm, wrap themselves in a cocoon. In it they pupate, spend the whole winter and are born in the first warm days of summer. Click:

Cabbage Butterfly Pieris brassicae

Caterpillar up to 3.5 cm long, 16-legged, greenish-yellow, dotted with sparse and short black hairs and black dots; along the back and on the sides, above the legs, 3 yellow stripes stand out; head and last body segment dorsally gray with black dots.

Sometimes in the summer on the meadow paths, or even in the city, you can meet slowly crawling large caterpillars. Someone will say “fu, what a disgusting thing!”, And someone, on the contrary, will pick it up with interest. The caterpillar, of course, does not like this, it begins to wriggle and curl up into a ring, because it has eaten for several weeks and is now looking for a secluded place to pupate. The caterpillar shown in the photo wine hawk hawk(lat. Deilephila elpenor) light brown, with a greenish tint; on the sides of the front of the body, not far from the head, it has dark spots with a white border on top and a small horn on the tail. If the caterpillar is frightened, it retracts its head, inflates segments with eye patterns, which makes them look like a snake's head with eyes, which should scare away uninvited predators. This caterpillar feeds on fireweed, better known to us as Ivan-tea, bedstraw and grape leaves (for which it got its name). After pupation, next year it will hatch from a wine hawk hawk moth, a rather large twilight moth, which is very similar to a hummingbird in its flight and feeding habits. Even in English it is called elephant hawk moth, which can be roughly translated as "elephant moth".

Wine hawk(lat. Deilephila elpenor) - a butterfly from the family hawk moths (Sphingidae). Wingspan 50-70 mm. The color of the front wings and body is olive-pink with transverse oblique pink bands on the front wings. The hindwings are black at the base. Widely distributed in the Palaearctic. Flight time - from mid-May to mid-August, one, in some places - two generations. Caterpillar stage - from mid-June to August. The color of the caterpillar varies from light green to brown and almost black, on the 4th and 5th rings there are "eyes" with a dark core and a white border. The horn is short, black-brown. Forage plants of caterpillars are fireweed (Epilobium angustifolium and E. hirsutum) and fireweed (Chamerion); less often bedstraw, touchy, grapes. Pupation on soil, pupa hibernates.

Below is a photo (not mine) of what an imago (adult moth) looks like:

Photo by jean pierre Hamon, Wikipedia

The wine hawk belongs to the genus Deilephila. These are large and medium butterflies with a wingspan of 40-80 mm. The wine hawk moth is an olive butterfly with a pink pattern. The base of the hind wings is black. Wingspan 50-70 mm. The head, thorax and abdomen of a moth are olive green. Pinkish stripes on the back near the abdomen merge into one longitudinal line. Antennae thickened, grayish-pink. The eyes are large, complex, covered with scales. Insects have excellent eyesight, they see objects in low light. Insects are common in Europe, including the south of the Urals. They are found in Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, India, Korea, Japan and China. It lives in gardens, on the edge of the forest, roadsides. Settles on honeysuckle bushes, flowers of petunias, iris. Moths living in gardens and parks pollinate 5-10% of the nearest trees and shrubs.

The caterpillar of the wine hawk hawk may be green or dark brown, almost black in color. On the 4th-5th segment of the body there are round black eyes with a white border. The tail horn is short, black at the base, the tip is white. Due to the large size of 70-80 mm, the caterpillars make a frightening impression on people. In fact, they are not dangerous. Even plants, the larvae do not cause serious harm.

The caterpillar of the wine hawk moth, in case of danger, is able to inflate a segment of the body with eyes. She pulls her head inward, assumes the pose of a sphinx, lifting her front legs off the surface. It makes her look like a snake. Given the impressive size of the body, enemies such as birds prefer not to fight.

Butterfly summer time is from May to August. They are active in the evening until midnight. Moths feed on flowers and mate. Depending on the region of habitat, they give from one to five generations. For plants that open buds at close times, they are excellent pollinators. During the mating season, they often fly to light sources.

Hawk hawks are excellent flyers, during migration they cover thousands of kilometers. Butterflies are able to hover in one place, feeding on the nectar of flowers, move vertically up and down.

The fertilized female lays single or paired round eggs on the leaves and stems of fodder plants. Green masonry with a glossy surface. The embryo develops in 7-10 days. Young larvae are yellow or light green in color. As they mature, most become grey-brown with black streaks. This stage lasts about a month.

The caterpillar of the wine hawk moth can be beneficial and harmful. It depends on her diet. The larva that settled on the weeds helps to get rid of the grass without weeding. The insect does not harm agriculture. The fodder plants of hawkweed are flowers and ovaries of fireweed (willow-herb), bedstraw, and touchy. In rare cases, it feeds on grape leaves.

Having reached the fifth instar, the larva descends to the ground and prepares for pupation. She chooses a place at the foot of the plant on which she ate, and forms a cocoon. The pupa is brown, 40-45 mm long. They overwinter in the litter or upper layers of the soil.

Hawk moths fly at speeds up to 50 km/h. The wind interferes with them in flight and while feeding on flowers. With a wind strength of 3 m/s, insects do not fly out to feed.

The medium wine hawk is listed in the Red Book of Karelia and the Belgorod region as a rare species.

The wine hawk moth received the Latin name Deilephila elpenor in honor of the hero of mythology: Elpenor is a friend of Odysseus, returning with him from Troy; died falling from the roof of the palace of the sorceress Circe.

There is an assumption that these spots on the caterpillars of wine hawks imitate the "glasses" of a cobra. However, it is unlikely that birds can confuse a small caterpillar with a snake, especially since wine hawks are widespread even where cobras are not found. A simple experience has shown that birds are very willing to eat ocellar caterpillars. There is no definite answer to the question about the reason for this coloration. The horn of the caterpillar of the middle wine hawk is weakly expressed.

The hawk hawk family (Sphingidae) is one of the fastest flyers not only among butterflies, but also among insects in general. Some develop speeds up to 60 km / h! Narrow and long front wings, streamlined, aerodynamic body make their flight swift and maneuverable. It was they, like some birds, who became the prototype for the creation of jet aircraft, thanks to observant designers. Hawk hawks make 37 to 85 wing beats per second, while the swallowtail, for example, makes only 5-6 beats.

The wine hawk moth can be brought out of the chrysalis at home on its own, but for this, after pupation, it must be stored in the refrigerator for some time, otherwise the adult insect will hatch somewhere around the new year, when it will have nothing to eat. Detailed information about their breeding -