Among the insects found on the territory of Russia, the largest is the butterfly hawk moth "dead head".The thickness of its trunk reaches 2 cm in length - 6 cm and the wingspan - 13 cm. It is even difficult to call arthropod insects.Rather, it is like a bird or a winged beast.Butterfly "dead head" has long been the terror inspires people.With it connected many legends.Believe it or not, everyone decides for himself.
Beliefs related butterfly
believed that a meeting with the "dead head" heralds the death of someone from the family members.To avoid this, the butterfly should be killed.If
scale with wing hawk gets into the eye, it will lead to inevitable blindness and death emergency.
In 1733 in France, black smallpox epidemic squinted thousands of lives.The arrival of the French scourge superstitious attributed to the appearance in these areas "dead head".
possible that Hyles "dead head" - butterfly, carrying death, disease, war, pestilence, famine and devastation?Of course, this is - monstrous heresy, though impressionable people still attributed to large insects such properties.But butterfly even dangerous not transmit diseases to humans, unlike many mammals and lice.
Mystical butterfly in literature and film
fear of it fueled and writers.So, science fiction Alexander Belyaev winged lepidopteran described in the story "Dead Head", giving the butterfly a fictional giant size, and famous for its mystical novels Edgar Allan Poe in the "Sphinx" has used this butterfly to catch up more on the fear of the protagonist.Susan Hill in the Gothic novel, "I'm the king of the castle" strikes fear into one of the characters, using the anatomical features of the insect.
Filmmakers hawk repeatedly included in the script for the thriller worsening climate of fear.
in "Silence of the Lambs" serial killer doll puts in his mouth hawk their victims.He hopes that it will help the implementation of its desire to become a woman.Ole Bornedal
showed accumulation of hawk moths, butterflies in one of the episodes of the thriller "The Possession", released in 2012.
origin and meaning of the name
Hyles "dead head" in Atlas classifiers in Latin referred to as Acheron Atropos.Acheron - is one of the five rivers of the kingdom of the dead.The same word ancient designated deep and terrible underworld."Atropos" is translated as "inevitable, inescapable fate."It is named after the goddess of fate, one of the three Fates, the one that breaks the thread of human life.
In common parlance in many nations figure in the form of a skull with empty eye sockets and two bones, causing the same association, and expressed in a similar way.That is why it is called everywhere almost the same - Butterfly "dead head" or "head of Adam."
Butterfly Creek - one more reason to fear
reason for the fear is human and what roisterer able to issue shrill cry of a thin, like a squeak.And it makes the head, or rather mouth.For insects it is not typical.Grasshoppers or cicadas, summer entertaining our hearing chirping publish his legs and makes it roisterer mouth.Hearing he also placed on his head.
uninvited guest - a sign of trouble?
Another reason to accept was that butterfly "dead head" is not a permanent resident of the indigenous and the European continent.Her birthplace and permanent habitat - North Africa.The country is strictly Light it is not always selected.It depends on the weather conditions, climate change and so on. P. Accurate information on this subject is not available.However, every year, make butterflies migrate to the northern regions.In some years they get to Iceland to the north and Iran to the east.In Russia Butterfly "dead head" met in Karelia near Petrozavodsk and St. Petersburg.More often she visits Kaluga, Moscow, Penza, Smolensk, Saratov, Astrakhan and Volgograd regions, as well as the Krasnodar region and the Caucasus.Some sources indicate that the hawk was observed even in Siberia - in the south of the Tyumen region.In the second generation of the female hawk sterile, and the population can be renewed only by a new wave of migrants.
What drives these amazing animals from their homes?Probably still do not desire to bring information about impending disasters and banal search for food.
The butterfly eats terrible?
eats butterfly "dead head"?Her favorite food is flower nectar and sweet sap.If you come across a juicy fruit, it will drink their juice, though preference is given to syrupy liquid food.On the island of Madagascar revelers pollinate the orchid, as in some species of the butterfly proboscis is longer than one and a half centimeters.Unlike other insects and birds hummingbirds which are also pollinators of flowers, Hyles can not solidify in flight over obёktom.He needs a solid support.Such support and plenty of nectar there beehives."Dead Head" - butterfly, nature itself arranged to have honey from the hives.The sound that it emits, is identical to that heard by the bees selected from the cocoon of a new cancer.Interestingly, it can be heard not only on the butterfly, but also from the pupa and from the caterpillar.Bees, hearing their soothing squeak hawk do not perceive as an enemy and a robber.Sometimes, however, they still show up uninvited guest.There were cases when the bees zazhalivali hawk to death, although it can withstand up to three bee stings without compromising health.
terrible demon of the night
If you look at the pictures, then spread his wings roisterer not produce awesome experience.And it looks like a butterfly "dead head" at night?After hawk moth - moth.It can be found in the twilight, when the sun is on the wane.Until midnight, huge insects circling in the light of street lamps or other sources of artificial light.This courtship dance of adult males and females.Extraordinarily beautiful, though very rare sight.How does the butterfly hawk moth "dead head" in a night light?Very impressive - on black velvet body clearly emerges the head of the dead man with empty eye sockets and a failure instead of a nose.Skuёt any superstitious terror, not just exalted lady with a fine mentality.As the saying goes: "Everyone wants to heaven, but nobody wants to die."Nevertheless, it is not necessary to be afraid hawk.
This kind of butterflies and so many people got on.They occasionally are entered in the Red Book as an endangered species.Being nocturnal, they do not bring any harm, and against the penetration of the hives have long-proven method.The beekeepers protect their honey from the intruder grilles with holes not more than one and a half centimeters.Through them easily pass the bees and drones, but the revelers.These sweet tooth too thick.
Track
addition apiaries hawk moths can be found in the fields.In the past, the females lay eggs on the potato beds.Their larvae gladly fed juicy tops.Once the field has become a mass process against the Colorado potato beetle, the revelers stopped place where their offspring.Caterpillars of butterflies "dead head" can eat leaves and other plants of the family Solanaceae - tomatoes, Physalis, eggplant, nightshade, datura, belladonna.As polyphages larvae "dead heads" and eat the green tops of carrots, beets and other root crops.They can live in gardens, absorbing the leaves of fruit trees and shrubs.During this period, they cause very substantial harm to agriculture.
butterflies lay bluish or greenish eggs in the sinus between the leaf and stem of the plant, and also sticks to the underside of the leaves.Eggs have a size from 1.2 to 1.5 mm.The larvae of the first age covered with sparse hairs and length are not greater than 1.2 cm, and the last, fifth, have already reached 15 cm and weigh up to 22, at the rear end of the caterpillar has the build-up, shaped like a horn.The larvae are very beautiful hawk.They are bright green with dark oblique stripes.Among leaves them easy to overlook.There are species with a yellow-green color and even blue and white.
caterpillars pupate to burrow into the ground to a depth of 40 cm. Periodically, they crawl to the surface to eat.Prior to the state of chrysalis the caterpillar lives for about eight weeks.Pupae transform into a butterfly for a month.Shortly before going outside, they are starting to publish specific to this type of arthropod sounds.Females hawk moths are larger and rounded shapes as compared with males.The color of the male specimens there is more black, drawing more dramatic and expressive.Typically, for the year it comes two life cycle of this species of insects, but good, especially warm summer, revelers can increase their reproduction cycle is up to three times.
Coloring butterflies and larvae is different, because the hawk moth has more than 1,200 species.And indeed the "dead head", that is a butterfly with a corresponding pattern on the body, also has a lot of varieties.
Hyles - an integral part biogeocoenose
Butterfly "dead head" makes a considerable contribution to the overall ecosystem of our planet.Large birds pollinate plants located deep inside the flower pistil.With this work do not consult other insects.Revelers are protein feed for a wide variety of fauna - in the daytime sleeping moth, Hyles is easy prey for many mammals and birds.
