About butterflies in winter

Photos and text  Aare Lindt, www.loodusmuuseum.ee
Translation Liis
A herald on the ceiling of the Anija manor cellar
 
Herald moth     Keldriöölane       Scoliopteryx libatrix
 
The adults or imagos of the wintering heralds were hatched at the end of July last year and the life cycle of long-lived adults will not end until in the beginning of July this year. In Estonia the heralds are quite common.
 
We can meet the heralds in winter in caves as well as cellars – quite as the Estonian name, keldriöölane, “the cellar moth”, indicates. A cellar suitable for wintering must have a suitable temperature – not too hot and not too cold, and the same time not too humid so that mold should not attack the moth. They can be seen on a concrete ceiling or a stone wall, and high up rather than low down. If they are disturbed an individual may let itself fall and “play dead”. When hibernating the eyes of the herald are hidden by fur hairs. They are not injured by freezing and among those that fly out of the cellar in May are also the ones that were covered with thick frost in winter.
 
About the exterior this much: on the front wings, grey with serrated edges, there are prominent orange lines. Moths are active in the summer nights and so their doings usually remain in the cover of dark.
 
Who searches will find!
 
 


 

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