Butterfly sennitsa - description, habitat, species

The butterfly sennica pamphilus (the second name is “small yellow satyr”) is one of the most ancient species of butterflies, they belong to the family Marigold. The Latin naming is Coenonympha pamphylius L. The name "Pamphilus" was allegedly given in honor of Plato's pupil, Pamphilus, which in Greek means "everyone's favorite."

Habitat

To meet the butterfly is now very difficult. In some regions, it was almost completely exterminated, since it is considered a pest because of the incredible gluttony. For example, in Germany, the sennica (mainly caterpillars) destroyed many corn fields, harvests of peppers and tomatoes, and many flower fields suffered as well.

Butterflies feed mainly on juices of various plants and rotted fruit, moisture from flies and mineral salts from feces. It is known that butterflies love the shadow, most often it can be found on a cloudy, cool day, while on hot days they hide in the shadows of the foliage of forests and parks.

Sennitsa has a very wide range of habitats.They live almost everywhere where winters are mild enough for their survival. Occur in the countries of Eastern Europe, it is not uncommon to meet such butterflies in the Caucasus mountains. They also live in Front and Central Asia, in western Siberia, in Mongolia, the Crimea, and even in the northern African regions.

There are butterflies in places such as:

• meadows and forests;
• river banks and forest edges;
• various wastelands and pastures;
• city ​​parks and squares;
• roadside roads;
• in gardens and glades with dense vegetation;
• fields planted with cereals;
• settlements.

To summarize, wherever food occurs and there is protection from the hot sun. More rarely, however, they were still noted on not very suitable habitats for development - the sandy seashores of the Black Sea.

Butterflies begin to show particular activity at the end of spring - from April to mid-late autumn, when the temperature drops to conditions that are not comfortable for sennica. The butterfly flies slowly enough, often sits on the flowers to feed them with nectar, posing in front of photographers and just lovers of these winged insects.

Features of appearance

Sennitsa pamphil is a diurnal butterfly, differs by a relatively small wingspan. By appearance they resemble a close relative - the marsh Sennitsa. The length of the front wing is 14-17 mm.

Specific features:

1. Sennica eyes are bare, without hair edging.
2. Uniform antennae, with gradual thickening of the mace.
3. The edges of the wings of the butterfly are rounded, the color is usually yellow, reddish or brown with different variations of these tones.
4. The wings on the back have rather large oval spots, the veins are slightly distinct in contrasting colors of the general background.
5. A pair of swollen veins are located on the front wings, and the underside has oculate spots against the background of an orange tint.

Appearance is very individual and depends mainly on the habitat of a particular butterfly.

It is impossible to see the most picturesque, upper surface of the wings of a butterfly, while it is in a calm state.

Life cycle and procreation

Depending on the climatic conditions of the habitat of the butterfly, sennica will give a different number of generations.

1. In the oreals of northern latitudes, butterflies give only one generation, and active flight takes place only in the middle of summer.
2. The climate of the middle zone allows making the development of already two or three generations of butterflies probable. The first turn of the active flight takes place from mid-May and continues until June, then the second generation takes over, the flight of which lasts until mid-September.
3. The most favorable conditions for the reproduction of progeny to butterflies are provided by the southern regions, where they reproduce three generations or more, and the activity often reaches even to October.

The appearance of the caterpillars is quite ordinary, has pinkish or green colors, longitudinal stripes on the back with a light border. The green head has white sides.

Caterpillars of sennica settle most often in plants of fodder crops. They are most active in the dark time of the day, in search of food. The caterpillar stage takes from sennitsa from 19 to 21 days.

If the caterpillar catches winter, it pupates (pupa diameter 0.9 mm, with a height of 1.1 mm) as close as possible to the soil. Developed caterpillars are placed vertically down, settling on the stalks of plants.Despite the harmfulness and sabotage of the sennica butterfly, scientists are trying by all means to preserve this species.