Nature has an amazing fantasy, especially when it comes to coloring the animal and plant worlds. Confirmation is the amazing coloring of butterflies called peacock eye. It very accurately reflects the essence of the image on the wings of an insect. A variety of shades and clarity of the picture suggest that this is the creation of human hands.
Description
Perhaps there is no person who at least once in his life has not seen a peacock butterfly. Description:
- Appearance. These are rather large insects, with a wingspan of a male up to 55 mm, for females - up to 62 mm. The body is black, covered with a reddish fluff. The wings have a circle pattern (there are only four of them: one on the upper and lower wings). In shape and color, they resemble the color of the tail feather of a peacock. Primary colors: red, black, blue, cyan, violet, brown, yellow.
- Habitat. Peacock eye butterflies are common throughout the world. Not found in the Far North, Crete, desert zones, North Africa. They prefer wastelands, steppes, meadows, open forest edges, parks, gardens. Found in the mountains at an altitude of 2500 meters above sea level. Active from early spring to mid-autumn. For hibernation, they choose dry cool places, attics, hollow trees, haystacks. With strong thaws, they can also occur in winter.
- Nutrition. At the caterpillar stage, the main plant - nettle, can feed on willow, hop, raspberry, and sometimes hemp. Adults feed on plant nectar. This is their distinguishing feature - they do not harm the flora.
Breeding
The peacock eye (photo in the text) goes through four stages of reproduction:
- The eggs. The insect lays up to 300 eggs at a time on the bottom of the nettle leaf, the period is April-May. The masonry in areas with a temperate climate is single, in the southern regions it can be two or three times.
- Caterpillar. They are painted black with small white spots, covered with hard branched spikes. The individuals live and feed together for approximately 4 months, until the pupation. They eat only nettles, in their absence they can switch to hops. The caterpillars completely eat the plant and only after that they begin to look for the next, do it with the help of the organs of touch. The first generation of caterpillars begins life in May-June, the second - in July-August.
- Dolly. The stage lasts about two weeks. All this time the insect is in a cocoon. It has several angular shapes, mounted on plants, walls, fences upside down. Color depends on the environment and can vary from green to gray or brown.
- Butterfly. Two weeks later, from a pupa, a butterfly of peacock eye of amazing beauty appears. Moreover, the brightness of its color directly depends on air temperature. She continues an active life until the onset of cold weather, with their arrival falls into hibernation.
Home Content
Peacock eye butterflies can be kept as pets. Food for them is nectar, ripened fruits, plant juice. You can make a mixture of honey (sugar), water and fruits. For breeding you need a pair - a female and a male. Mating can last from 30 minutes to 8 hours. After fertilization, the female lays eggs on freshly prepared nettle leaves. They are neatly stacked in a box, providing high humidity, heat and good air circulation.
With the advent of caterpillars, efforts to feed them begin. Daily diet - fresh leaves of nettle, hops, raspberries. With the advent of pupae, insects are relocated to a more spacious home. It is better to hang cocoons, and put a damp towel on the bottom of the house, providing the necessary microclimate.
Butterflies fall asleep at a temperature of +15 ° C. They are carefully folded into a box and taken out onto a loggia or a glazed balcony, you can put them in the refrigerator. The optimum temperature is 0 ° and +5 ° , when warm, the insect can grow old too quickly, do not wake up at all. Life expectancy is up to 12 months.