A moth with a skull on its back. Butterfly that screams. Dead head habitat

Brazhniki is a family of lepidoptera insects belonging to arthropods. Representatives are butterflies of large and medium size. They are grouped into 3 groups. The dead head hawk belongs to the Sphinx subfamily. Butterfly put on the second step in size in Europe. In terms of body size, she ranks first.

The dead, or Adam's, head is a bright and large representative of the hawk family. In the open state, the length of the insect in width reaches 13 cm. The maximum mass of a butterfly is 9–10 g. The average length of the front wings is 5 cm.

Imago (adult)

In adulthood, the insect is remembered for its characteristic color, large size. External signs:

1. The body is thickened, hairy, resembles a spindle. Length - up to 6 cm, girth - up to 2 cm;
2. The front part of the body is brown, brown or black, sometimes with a blue tint;
3. Back - striped pattern, consisting of brown, silver, yellow shades;
4. Part after the head - the coloring appears in the form of a human skull with empty eye sockets, sometimes the pattern is absent;
5. The forewings are elongated, twice as long as wide. The color is varied, usually they are dark with wavy stripes;
6. The hindwings are short, sloping, with a slight indentation. The color is bright yellow with black smooth stripes forming a pattern.
7. The head is black. The eyes are large, the antennae and proboscis are shortened.
8. The tarsi are short, massive, with 4 rows of spines and spurs on the shins.

Sexual dimorphism is expressed in size, shape of the abdomen, wingspan, color. Males are smaller than females. The body is pointed, while in females it is rounded. The opening of the wings in males is up to 115 cm, in females - up to 130 cm. In males, the last two abdominal rings are painted black or silver-blue.

A specific feature is a deafening squeak in case of danger. This is a rare occurrence for Lepidoptera insects. The origin of sound was discovered only in the last century. The squeak arises from the fluctuation of the outgrowth on the upper lip.

Caterpillar

The dead head caterpillar is easy to distinguish from other larvae by bright external features:

• sizes - large, in adulthood up to 15 cm long;
• color - bright, lemon, greenish or brown;
• drawing - blue stripes diagonally on each segment;
• the horn on the back of the body is yellow, rough, double-curved like the letter S.

Additional appearance features: numerous black dots from the 4th segment, large round spots on the sides. If the caterpillar is green, then the stripes on the segments will be a darker shade.

Dead head habitat

The distribution area is constantly changing. North Africa is recognized as the place of origin of the butterfly. The main habitats are areas with a warm climate. An insect is found on the territory of Africa, in the southern regions of Europe, Turkmenistan, Transcaucasia and on the Crimean Peninsula.

The dead head butterfly is found in Abkhazia, Georgia, the European part of Russia. Sometimes the insect flies to Iceland, the northern and eastern regions of Kazakhstan, the Middle Urals.

The habitat is varied, but the main places are plantations, fields, valleys, light forests. Favorite climate - tropics and subtropics. In Europe, insects settle near potato fields, and in Transcaucasia - in foothill areas.

Butterfly hawk dead head - these are migratory insects. Every year they fly from Africa to the northern countries, where they form colonies. The duration of migration and the territory occupied depend on the weather. At favorable conditions insects develop a speed of 50 km / h. The flight usually starts in May or June.

Butterfly life style dead head

Massive, strong paws determined the way of life of hawk hawk. In the daytime, insects rest, located on the litter or trees. Closer to the night they fly out to search for food.

Before midnight, butterflies are attracted to artificial lighting. The main part of the arriving insects are male and female individuals, ready for mating. Therefore, mating dances are often observed around lamps and lampposts.

The lifestyle of caterpillars also stands out. The larvae rarely appear on the surface. The main part of the stage proceeds underground at a depth of up to 30–40 cm. Sometimes the caterpillar does not come out at all, but only brings out part of the body to feed on the nearest greenery. The stage lasts 2 months.

Dead head nutrition

Larvae and adults are polyphagous insects. The shortened proboscis has led to the fact that butterflies cannot feed on flower nectar. Therefore, they eat the juices of trees or fruits that have broken integrity. Nutrition is an important part of the life of a butterfly, as it affects the maturation of eggs in females.

Caterpillars prefer the tops of nightshade plants: potatoes, tomatoes, wolfberry, dope, eggplant. Due to the polyphagous lifestyle, the larvae eat the foliage of other plants - cabbages, carrots, elderberries, lilacs, apple trees, plums. Caterpillars will not refuse the bark of trees, grassy vegetation.

Hawk hawk dead head and bees

Butterflies love sweet nectar, so they often fly to apiaries and make their way to bee houses. The moth pierces honeycombs with a short proboscis, sucks honey 5-10 grams at a time. How do butterflies go unnoticed? Three different theories have been proposed to explain this phenomenon:

1. The bees mistake the hawks for the uterus, since the body is painted with the same colors. Therefore, there are no obstacles for moths to enter the hives.
2. Butterflies dead head are skillfully disguised by the release of substances that hide their own smell. Fatty acids are excreted in the same quantities and proportions as in bees.
3. The sounds of the hawk moth resemble the squeak of a queen bee when leaving the cocoon. This theory has not been confirmed by scientists, but many beekeepers still adhere to it.

The main advantage of butterflies is resistance to. This is achieved due to the density of the hairline, which prevents the sting from penetrating. Single attacks of bees are not terrible for the hawk moth, but numerous bites kill butterflies.

Moths visit the hives one by one, so they do not ruin them. But beekeepers still do not like these lepidoptera insects, they consider them pests. To protect the apiary, they install nets on the entrances, the openings of which are small for large butterflies, but optimal for worker bees and drones.

Reproduction and lifespan of a dead head butterfly

Butterflies in their native spaces live and breed throughout the year. Usually 2 generations appear, but with prolonged warm weather, the number increases to three. Mating takes place at night.

The laid egg is round, small (up to 1 mm in diameter), white with a greenish or bluish tinge. Females lay up to 150 eggs at a time. They do it on fodder plants. A light, whitish larva with transparent paws emerges from the egg. Caterpillar development phases:

1. The first age is light green in color, without a pattern, sizes up to 12 mm.
2. The second age - a brown horn is formed, which seems large relative to the body.
3. Moulting - the larva increases in size, acquires new signs.
4. Third age - stripes and black dots appear on the segments, the horn becomes light, rough.
5. The fourth age - the size reaches 5 cm, and the weight is 4 g.
6. The fifth age - the length increases to 15 cm, and the weight - up to 20 g. The larva begins to move less.

The caterpillar lives for 2 months, then pupates. This happens at a depth of 15–40 cm underground. Hawk hawk pupae are smooth, orange-red in color, becoming brownish with time. They do not tolerate cold well, so they die en masse in frosts. The average length of the pupae is 5-6 cm, and the weight is 8-10 grams.

After one month, an adult emerges from the pupa. Life expectancy is up to 30 days. It depends on the amount of nutrients accumulated by the caterpillar.

The dead head butterfly is surrounded by various myths, which is associated with a peculiar color. For example, it was believed that the appearance of a hawk nearby would mark death. loved one. These superstitions led to the mass destruction of insects. In many countries they are listed in the Red Book.

Butterfly dead head (lat. Acherontia atropos) belongs to the Brazhnikov family (Sphingidae). It has a characteristic pattern in the shape of a skull on its back, which was the reason for its name. It is also called the 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 ancient greek goddess the fate of Atropa.

In 1809, the butterfly was assigned to the newly formed genus Acherontia by the German zoologist Jacob Laspeers, indicating the Acheron River in the underworld of Hades.

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

In England, it is widely believed that it is friends with witches and confidentially whispers in their ear the names of people who will soon die. Many African tribes are of the opinion that the dead head is poisonous and its bite is fatal.

In most European countries, a butterfly that accidentally flew into the house is considered to be a harbinger of great misfortune.

Spreading

The range of this species occupies tropical and subtropical regions of Africa, the Middle East and the basin mediterranean sea. It migrates in large numbers to the territory of 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 able to overcome thousands of kilometers in flight at altitudes up to 2500 m above sea level. If the summer in Europe turns out to be warm and long enough, then the new generation migrates south in anticipation of autumn.

Insects prefer well-warmed and sunlit areas. They are attracted by open landscapes overgrown with grassy or shrubby vegetation and located mainly in lowlands. Butterflies are often seen in deciduous forests. In the foothills, they are rarely observed at altitudes above 700 m.

Behavior

The dead head is nocturnal. During the day, the butterfly rests on tree trunks or stumps, from a distance completely merging with the texture of the tree bark. Up close, the color is quite effective at scaring off predators, in which it is associated with hornets or wasps.

Representatives of this species have the ability to make whistling sounds, reminiscent of something like 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, which is strongly compressed by muscular walls. At the same time, the entrance to the digestive tract is closed, leaving only the oral cavity open.

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

Butterflies make sounds when touched. Males become especially "talkative" near females or when approaching light sources.

Disturbed insects flap their wings, make noise, bounce, but do not fly away, but try to hide in a crevice in the bark or under the branches. In overly importunate attackers, males release a mushroom-smelling substance from glands located on the second segment of the abdomen.

Food

Imago go in search of food at dusk and are active until midnight. They fly around the flowers of potatoes, tobacco, cloves, honeysuckle, hydrangeas 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 begin to deteriorate.

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

Dead heads enter them to feed on the already collected nectar and honey. Worker bees, as a rule, do not show any aggression towards them.

Butterflies secrete chemicals that inhibit their aggressiveness. They are a mixture of palmitoleic, palmitic, stearic and oleic acids in proportions similar to bee secretions. Having the same smell with 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 put their proboscis in the honeycombs and feast on honey. In one sitting, the eater is able to eat up to 15 g of a high-calorie product.

reproduction

Adam's head butterflies in their development from eggs to adults undergo a complete metamorphosis. 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 fodder plants, mainly from the Solanaceae family. In addition to nightshade, potatoes, tobacco, tomatoes and eggplant, their caterpillars eat leaves of viburnum, elderberry, dill, carrots, cabbage, oleander, hemp, beets, jasmine, buddley, 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 are colored light green. The body length of hatched caterpillars is about 12 mm. They are lemon, greenish-yellow or green, most rarely brownish caterpillars with transverse white stripes. After 5 molts, the caterpillars grow up to 15 cm and weigh about 20 g.

Pupation occurs at about the age of 8 weeks in the soil at a depth of 15-40 cm. The caterpillar independently digs a mink with an egg-shaped chamber at the very bottom.

The pupa usually has a brilliant cream color and a length of 75-80 mm, occasionally up to 120 mm. In the pupal stage, the insect stays for about a month. In the southern regions of the Alps, it remains in it for the winter, and adults appear 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 honeycombs.

The forewings have a dark gray background with whitish spots with black serrated edges. Hind wings approximately 2 times smaller and yellowish with dark stripes. On the thorax, a drawing with the outlines of a human skull is visible.

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

The lifespan of an adult dead head butterfly is 1-2 months.

It's just akin to a miracle: going out into your own yard to your own flower bed, to see above the flowers something very reminiscent of the famous tropical bird hummingbird. Logic suggests that the climatic conditions have not yet changed enough for the Tropican women to migrate to us, but here it is - businesslike, busy, sticking out its proboscis, drinking nectar from petunia gramophones, hovering beautifully over the flowers.

The charm of these insects lies precisely in the similarity with the habits of hummingbirds. Yes, they are similar in size. Moth moths, and it is they who confuse nature lovers who are ignorant of the species diversity, are quite often found during the day in central Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and other European countries. And although representatives of the Brazhnikov species fly out in search of food at night, there are several subspecies that feed like birds during the day.

butterfly bird

For an insect, hawks are simply huge: 29-32 mm, some individuals reach thirty-six. The wingspan of representatives of the Brazhnikov family is also rather big - from 50 to 70 millimeters.

Moth butterflies have a unique appearance. Each species has its own color and its own pattern on the back and wings. So, the wine hawk hawk has a burgundy hue (like wine), and the butterfly with the frightening name dead head wears an image on its back that is strikingly reminiscent of pirate symbols - a skull.

Entomologists choose the names of butterflies according to their inherent traits or behavioral style. The hawk family got its “surname” because of their habit of eating, flying from flower to flower, just as drunkards (and earlier they were called only hawks) move from table to table, from tavern to tavern, until they get drunk enough.

Not a very euphonious name, but it is firmly entrenched in insects.

The best flyers

Despite the seeming sluggishness and increased shaggyness, hawk moths have earned the title of the best flyers among insects. If you observe insects in a state of immobility (when they sit), one can hardly suspect that these creatures with a fairly thick body, noticeable antennae and wings that are not at all fragile can get off the ground.

Nevertheless, the species of butterflies of this family are a kind of high-speed "aircraft" from the world of insects. They are capable of reaching speeds of up to 50 kilometers per hour and can visit completely different regions in one day. Thus, insects provide themselves with a varied diet: either nectar from lilacs, or from hydrangeas, or from any other flowers - each of them has its own taste. And the hawk hawk flies purposefully to this wealth, and not just brings it with the wind, like other, lighter insects.

Habitat

Moth hawks are common in Asia, Europe and North America. Fluffy insects that feed on nectar during the day and lead a nocturnal lifestyle can be found from the Western European coast of the Atlantic to Kamchatka. Even in the most unsuitable, it would seem, northern regions for insect habitation, hawk hawk is not uncommon.

In Russia, there are hawk moths in the Lipetsk region, in Yelets, in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. They were even photographed not far from Ufa and Tyumen.

By the way, capturing this nimble insect is not so easy, it moves so quickly from flower to flower. But in the images that we managed to get, it is noticeable that the wings of the butterfly are in active movement and look transparent.

How is beauty born?

Caterpillars of hawk moths deserve a separate discussion, since they also belong to the wonders of nature. Beauties in color and originals in body structure, these forerunners of hawk moths can perfectly disguise themselves as environment, taking the form of a twisted leaf.

But they also know how to stand out bright colors and the presence of a growth in the form of a small horn on the tail.

Butterfly caterpillars pupate from mid-August, nestling comfortably in a cocoon of fallen leaves or in a pillow of moss, or in the soil, burrowing to a depth of at least five centimeters.

The chrysalis spends the winter in a cocoon, and in the spring it appears to the world in all its glory.

Life is short

If we consider the species of butterflies in general, then among them there are none that would live longer than two or three weeks. Those that can last a month are already real centenarians among insects.

Some of the representatives of the Brazhnikovs are lucky to enjoy life for just a few days. Now we are talking about those that have neither a proboscis nor a digestive system. Such butterflies live only at the expense of those substances that the caterpillar accumulated at one time.

Hummingbird butterflies, able to get their livelihood from flowering plants, delight us with their presence a little longer - up to a month.

Sometimes two generations of hawk moths are born in a year - in May and in September.

And that's all they are

The names of butterfly moths are very unusual and eloquent - they always reveal the essence of the insect.

The most common bedstraws in our territory got their name because of their favorite food product. When they were caterpillars, they feed exclusively on bedstraw, and when they were butterflies, they can fly even in the coldest latitudes, up to the Arctic Circle.

The same can be said about euphorbia, lime hawks.

Medium and small wine hawks differ from each other only in size, as their names indicate. Almost the same structure, almost the same color, these butterflies have long been the decoration of city flower beds and garden plots. People perceive their bright cheerful color as a symbol of summer.

There are legends about the hawk dead head. Say, this is a dungeon dweller, labeled and associated with evil spirits. And the poor insect was just unlucky with the pattern: the butterfly is decorated with an impartial skull. The dead head has another unique feature - when touched, it makes a piercing squeaking sound. Butterfly wings have a span of up to 13 cm.

Moth hawks, despite belonging to the same family, are very different insects: some are too bright, others are of a neutral calm color, some have a comfortable proboscis, others have only antennae.

In total, there are 1200 species of butterflies of the hawk family in the world, of which 25 are found in the European part of Russia.

Forty degrees is the norm

Butterflies of the Brazhnikov family have a massive spindle-like body, which is quite difficult to lift into the air (they always and everyone associate with small cargo planes).

In order for the flight to go smoothly, insects need to warm up their muscles before it starts - flutter their wings while sitting in place. This process is so effective that it heats up the butterfly's body to forty degrees, and this temperature indicator lasts for the entire period of the butterfly's flight.

honey thieves

Moth hawks do not live by nectar alone, they also respect honey very much. For this delicacy, butterflies do not hesitate to climb into bee hives. And what is most surprising, to return from there not only alive and healthy, but also well-fed. How can bees endure such impudent raids?

Entomologists have come to the conclusion that the quiet creaking sounds made by hawks have a hypnotic effect on the entire swarm, reminding the bees of the sound of the uterus. So the butterfly distracts the attention of the bees and feasts on honey.

It is not necessary to destroy hawks for this sweet theft, they do not harm the apiary, and it would not hurt to protect honey thieves: almost all species of these butterflies are listed in the Red Book.

Among the insects found on the territory of Russia, the largest is the “dead head” hawk moth. The thickness of her body reaches 2 cm, the length is 6 cm, and the wingspan is 13 cm. It is even difficult to call this arthropod an insect. She is more like a bird or a winged beast. Butterfly "dead head" has long inspires people with horror. Many legends are associated with it. Believe them or not, everyone decides for himself.

Beliefs associated with a butterfly

It is believed that a meeting with a "dead head" portends the death of one of the family members. To prevent this from happening, the butterfly should be killed.

If the scale from the wing of the hawk-moth gets into the eye, it will lead to inevitable blindness and imminent death.

In 1733, in France, an epidemic mowed down thousands human lives. The superstitious French associated the advent of misfortune with the appearance of a “dead head” in these places.

Is it possible that the “dead 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. So, the science fiction writer described the winged lepidoptera in the story “Dead Head”, giving the butterfly a fictional gigantic size, and Edgar Allan Poe, famous for his mystical short stories, used this butterfly in The Sphinx to bring more fear to the protagonist. Susan Hill in the gothic novel "I'm King in the Castle" terrified one of the characters using the anatomical features of an insect.

Filmmakers have repeatedly included hawk hawk in the scripts of thrillers to exacerbate the atmosphere of fear.

In The Silence of the Lambs, a homicidal maniac puts a hawk chrysalis in his victims' mouths. He hopes that this will help fulfill his desire to become a woman.

Ole Bornedal showed a cluster of hawk moths in one of the episodes of the thriller "Casket of Damnation", which was released in 2012.

Origin and meaning of the name

The “dead head” hawk moth in Latin classifiers is referred to as Acheronthia atropos. Acheron is one of the five rivers of the kingdom of the dead. With the same word, the ancients denoted a deep and terrible underworld. "Atropa" is translated as "inevitability, inevitable fate." One of the three moiras bears this name, the one that breaks the thread of a person's life.

In common parlance, among many peoples, a drawing in with empty eye sockets and two bones, which evokes the same associations, was expressed in a similar way. Therefore, they call it almost the same everywhere - the “dead head” or “Adam's head” butterfly.

The cry of a butterfly is another reason for fear

The reason for human fear is the fact that the hawk is able to emit a piercing thin cry, similar to a squeak. And he does it with his head, or rather with his mouth. This is not the case for insects. Grasshoppers or cicadas, entertaining our ears with chirping in the summer, emit it with their feet, and hawk hawk does it with their mouths. He also has hearing organs on his head.

Uninvited guest - a sign of trouble?

Another reason for the signs was that the "dead head" butterfly is not a native and permanent resident of the European continent. Its homeland and permanent range is North Africa. She is not always chosen to the countries of the Strictly Light. It depends on weather conditions, climate change, etc. There is no exact information on this subject. 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 “dead 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 Krasnodar region and the Caucasus. Some sources testify that they observed hawk moth even in Siberia - in the south of the Tyumen region. In the second generation, hawk hawk females are sterile, and the population can only be renewed due to a new wave of migrants.

What drives these amazing animals from their native places? Probably, nevertheless, not the desire to bring information about impending disasters, but a banal search for food.

What does the scary butterfly eat?

What does a dead head butterfly eat? Her favorite foods are flower nectar and sweet tree sap. If juicy fruits come across, then she will drink their juice, although she prefers liquid syrupy food. On the island of Madagascar, hawks pollinate orchids, as in some species of this butterfly the proboscis is longer than one and a half centimeters. Unlike other insects, which are also pollinators of flowers, hawk hawk cannot freeze in flight over an object. He needs solid support. Such support and a large number of nectar is found in bee hives. "Dead head" - a butterfly, arranged by nature itself in order to eat honey from hives. The sound she makes is identical to that which the bees hear from a new queen emerging from the cocoon. Interestingly, it can be heard not only from a butterfly, but also from a chrysalis, and from a caterpillar. The bees, hearing the squeak that calms them, do not perceive the hawk moth as an enemy and a robber. However, sometimes they still expose the uninvited guest. There have been cases when bees sting hawk hawk to death, although it can withstand up to three bee stings without harm to health.

Scary demon of the night

If you look at the photographs, then the hawk hawk spreading its wings does not at all make a frightening impression. And what does a “dead head” butterfly look like at night? After all, the hawk moth is a night butterfly. It can be found 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 courtship dances of adult males and females. Unusually beautiful, albeit a very rare sight. What does the "dead head" hawk moth look like at night? Very impressive - on a black velvet body, the head of a dead person with empty eye sockets and a gap instead of a nose clearly looms. Superstitious horror binds anyone, and 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 hawker.

This species of butterflies has already inherited a lot from people. They are periodically listed in the Red Book as an endangered species. Being nocturnal animals, they do no harm, and there is a long-proven method against entering the hives. Beekeepers protect their honey from an uninvited guest with bars with holes no larger than one and a half centimeters. Bees and drones easily pass through them, but not hawks. These sweet teeth are too fat.

caterpillars

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

The butterfly lays bluish or greenish eggs in the axils between the leaves and the trunk of these plants, and also sticks to the underside of the leaves. The eggs are 1.2 to 1.5 mm in size. The larvae of the first age are covered with sparse hairs and are not 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 resembling a horn in shape. Hawk hawk larvae are very beautiful. They are bright green with oblique dark stripes. Among the leaves, they are easy to miss. There are species with a yellow-green color and even blue-white.

For pupation, caterpillars burrow into the ground to a depth of 40 cm. Periodically, they crawl out to the surface to eat. The caterpillar lives for about eight weeks before entering the chrysalis state. The pupae transform into a butterfly within a month. Shortly before going outside, they begin to make sounds characteristic of this species of arthropods. Female hawk moths are larger and rounded than males. In the color of male specimens there is more black, the pattern is sharper and more expressive. Usually there are two life cycles of this species of insects per year, but in a good, especially warm summer, hawk moths are able to increase their reproduction cycle up to three times.

The color of butterflies and larvae is different, because the hawk hawk has more than 1200 species. And the “dead head” itself, that is, a butterfly with a corresponding pattern on the body, also has a lot of varieties.

Brazhnik is an integral part of biogeocenosis

Butterfly "dead head" makes a significant contribution to the overall ecosystem of our planet. Large individuals pollinate plants with a pistil deep inside the flower. Other insects do not cope with this work. Hawk hawks are a protein food for a variety of fauna - in the daytime, the sleepy night hawk moth is an easy prey for many mammals and birds.

In appearance, it rather resembles a bird or a “winged” beast. This is the largest insect that inhabits the expanses of Russia and the largest of the hawk family: with a body thickness of 2 cm, its length is more than 6 cm, while its wingspan reaches 13 cm. The very name: “dead 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.

Moth hawk dead head is guilty of epidemics?

“Not with us, but there was…”

Many of the people are sure: if you see a "dead head" - kill it immediately, before someone in the family dies! And if a scale from its winglet gets into the eye, a person will first go blind, and then die altogether.

France. Year 1733. Thousands of inhabitants of the country died in the epidemic of "black smallpox". Who was blamed for the tragedy? Of course, the "dead head"! Full of superstition, the French began to see her often shortly before the start of the epidemic.

Can this really large insect be a sower of death, war, famine, disease, epidemics and devastation? After all, a butterfly is not a louse that carries typhus, and not a flea that carries the plague, and a cow not infected with anthrax. Therefore, all the stories about fatal meetings with her on the eve of trouble are only the fruit of a sick imagination. Or a way to impress a timid person.

Butterfly hawk moth in cinema and literature

Literature and cinema mystify anything

The fear of the "dead head" has always been skillfully inflated by writers. Fantast Alexander Belyaev in the story of the same name describes this lepidopteran creature as a monster (many consider a dragonfly to be a “miracle”) of an incredibly large size.

Edgar Allan Poe in his mystical short story "The Sphinx" brought his protagonist almost to madness, taking advantage of the properties of this animal.

Susan Hill, who wrote the gothic novel I'm King of the Castle, also used the anatomy of this insect so that one of the characters could intimidate the other.

Cinematographers who repeatedly used this hawk moth as the main character in "horror films" also contributed to instilling fear in the gullible layman.

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

Thriller "Casket of Damnation" (year of appearance on the screens 2012) Ole Bornedal also seeks to intimidate the audience by showing a huge crowd of hawk moths, painting them one of the episodes of the film.

Why was the hawk given such a name?

doomed name

Acherontia atropos. Entomological atlases unanimously translate this Latin name for the butterfly as “dead head”.

To be quite 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 realm of the dead (there are five in total). The ancient name of a deep and incredibly terrible underworld sounds the same way.

The word Atropa also means not only "irreversibility, irreparable fate." This is also the name of one of the moira, 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 birth to different peoples the same images, which simple speech describes them with the same words. That is why they call this butterfly the same everywhere: either “dead head” or “Adam's head”.

Brazhnik - a butterfly that makes sounds

The "cry" of the hawk moth is not a reason for fear

The ability of this butterfly to make a piercingly thin sound - a "scream" similar to a squeak. Another motive for people to be afraid of her. Cicadas and grasshoppers make their summer chirping, which amuses our ears in summer, with their feet, while hawk makes sounds with its head (of course, the 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 “dead head”.

The guest is uninvited - expect trouble?

Superstitions about the hawk moth rest on another basis - the "outside" origin of the butterfly: the "dead head" is a fickle, non-indigenous inhabitant of the Eurasia continent. Her homeland and area of ​​\u200b\u200bpermanent residence is North Africa, in the countries of the Old World she has nothing to do in a good scenario of fate.

Where hawk hawk dead head is found

But the climate changes, the weather changes, and, although not every year, the temptation comes to the butterflies to make a voyage to more northern territories. Not all, but some sphinxes (they are also 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 "dead head" on Russian territory Petrozavodsk (the capital of Karelia) and St. Petersburg distinguished themselves. The regions of Moscow, Kaluga, Smolensk, Penza, Saratov, Volgograd and Astrakhan, the Caucasus and the Krasnodar Territory are visited by this species of hawk hawk much more often.

According to individual sources, the “phenomenon” of this butterfly was registered even to the south of the Tyumen region, to Siberia. But the second generation of females of these hawk moths is already barren, so the population can be revived only by waiting for a new wave of migrants from the south.

What makes these strange creatures leave their homeland? Most likely they do it for the most banal reason - food. Maybe the reason here is different, but it is unlikely that this is a desire to pass for the messengers of trouble.