The biggest butterfly in the world. The largest butterfly in the world The largest butterfly in the world is the peacock-eye atlas

Attacus Atlas is a giant moth with a wingspan of over 25cm, one of the largest in the world. The butterfly has an unusual pattern: on the main velvety-brown background there are pink stains and transparent triangular windows. The female and male differ markedly in size and shape of the wings. The male is smaller (span 18-20 cm) and the tips of the upper wings are sharpened, the female has larger rounded wings and a span of 24-26 cm.

Also, the male has wider and larger antennae than the female. Even in the pupal stage, if you look closely, the difference in antenna size is clearly visible and this is one of the few species in which you can distinguish the female from the male at the pupal stage. The genus Attacus has a range from East India to New Guinea. The diet of atlas caterpillars is quite large, so the full cycle of the butterfly is quite easy to reproduce at home. True caterpillars in the last stages of development are incredibly voracious and can eat 100 times their weight in a day. The length of the caterpillars at the last stage reaches 10 cm.

In Attacus atlas collections, it is often found. Many specimens are bred from pupae on farms and therefore have retained their original beauty. In butterflies born in natural habitats, the wings are often damaged already in the first hours of flight.

Peacock-eyed atlas (lat. Attacus atlas), also known as the Prince of Darkness, is one of the largest butterflies in the world. She has many subspecies, and the largest of them is called the Emperor.

Spreading

The habitat of the Prince of Darkness is located in subtropical and tropical forests growing in southern China, Thailand, Indonesia and the island of Java. He prefers to lead a nocturnal lifestyle, for which he received his name.

reproduction

The whole life of butterflies is intended solely for procreation. The female peacock-eye atlas is much larger than the males. Having been born, she begins to distribute pheromones, staying for several days waiting for the male.

From the first minutes of his life, the male is also looking for a partner. In this, he is helped by a long antennae that captures the aroma emitted by her. The gentleman can detect her whereabouts within a radius of several kilometers. The process of fertilization itself can last for several hours.

A day after mating, the female begins to lay eggs. This goes on for several nights in a row. Having fulfilled its parental duty, the butterfly immediately dies. Her oral apparatus is undeveloped. All the time she lives off the reserves that her caterpillar managed to make.

A fertilized female lays eggs on the lower part of the leaves of plants that serve as a food base for her larvae. The incubation period lasts from one week to two.

Thick caterpillars of a greenish hue are born, with long processes of blue color and slightly powdered with a wax coating. They grow up to 11 cm long.

In India, this type of butterfly is domesticated. Caterpillars are used to isolate silk threads. These threads are different from those produced by silkworms.

The silk thread of the peacock-eye caterpillar is brown, very strong and woolly.

A fabric woven from such a thread is called loafer silk and has increased strength. Enterprising Taiwanese adapted to use empty cocoons of peacock-eye as wallets.

Description

The peacock-eyed atlas has an unusual wing shape resembling a snake's head. Obviously, nature took care of its protection from natural enemies. The color of the butterfly is very pretty. In her outfit there are bright red, yellow, chocolate and pinkish shades.

All wings have one transparent window. The wingspan of a butterfly reaches 26 cm, and their area is 400 square meters. cm.

Attacus atlas(Linnaeus, 1758).
The specific name is associated with the name of the Greek mythological hero Atlas - a titan holding the vault of heaven on his shoulders.

Russian name

Peacock-eye atlas.

English title

Systematic position

Type Arthropoda (Arthropoda)
Class Insects (Insecta)
Squad - Lepidoptera, or Butterflies (Lepidoptera)
Family - Peacock-eyes, or Saturnia (Saturniidae)
Genus - Attacus ( Attacus)

Conservation status of the species

The view is common.

View and person

Caterpillars of the atlas peacock-eye feed singly on trees and shrubs, so this species is not among the pests. Due to its size and bright coloration, the atlas peacock eye is one of the favorite objects of collectors. This species is easily bred in captivity, so it is often found in Butterfly Houses and butterfly exhibits in zoos, as well as in hobbyist living collections.

Appearance

One of the largest butterflies in the world, its wingspan can reach 25 - 28 cm. The wings of this night butterfly are painted in different shades of brown, bright red, yellow and pink and have one transparent triangular "window". The female is slightly larger, her antennae are shorter and narrower than those of the male. Caterpillars of the last age are greenish in color, with massive light blue processes all over the body, covered with a white wax coating, reaching a length of 10 cm. The pupa is in a dense grayish-brown cocoon.

Spreading

It lives in the tropical forests of Southeast Asia from Northeast India to New Guinea.

Photo by M. Berezin.

Atlas caterpillars. Photo by M. Berezin.

Activity

Twilight view. Butterflies fly in the late evening and early morning hours.

social behavior

Caterpillars feed singly. The male is able to find a female located at a distance of several kilometers from him.

reproduction

The whole life of adult butterflies is devoted exclusively to reproduction. On the first evening after leaving the pupa, the male goes in search of a female. The female, emerging from the pupa, sits motionless in anticipation of the male and is able to wait for him in this way for several days. Mating lasts several hours. The male is able to fertilize two to three females. The next evening after mating, the female begins laying eggs on the host plant. Egg laying continues for several nights, immediately after it is completed, the female dies. Caterpillars in nature feed on the leaves of various woody tropical plants. Under artificial conditions, they willingly eat the leaves of lilac, privet, poplar, willow, oak, etc.

Migrations

None.

Parental Behavior

The female lays her eggs in small groups on a host plant and flies away.

Lifespan

Imago live for about 10 days. Depending on the temperature, the caterpillar develops in 25 - 35 days, the egg - 8 - 10 days.

The history of the species in the zoo

The species was first brought to the Moscow Zoo in 1998. It has been regularly bred in the summer months since 2004, but the culture is renewed every year due to the purchase of pupae. The Moscow Zoo buys atlas pupae from specialized butterfly farms.

Peacock-eye atlas is common in Butterfly Houses and zoos with butterfly displays.

Atlas peacock-eyes and their caterpillars, along with some other tropical butterflies, are displayed in a hexagonal glazed enclosure 6 m high and 50 m³ in volume.

Temperature +26-28ºС and relative air humidity 70-80% are maintained in the enclosure. Inside the enclosure there is an artificial stream and a waterfall, the enclosure is planted with live plants. The exposition area is 100 m². Since atlas peacock-eyes are nocturnal butterflies, in the daytime they sit motionless on the branches of plants, the walls of the enclosure, and sometimes on the glass. Visitors usually cannot observe the flight of these butterflies, for which they need a large space. Atlas mating and egg laying take place in small cages in a special room outside the exposition. In the same place, caterpillars of this species develop in glass cages, feeding throughout the day on cut branches of lilac, willow and poplar. Adult peacock-eye atlas do not feed and do not even have a proboscis.

Peacock-eyed atlas, like other species of the Saturnian family, does not mate with closely related individuals, so the culture of this species must be updated every two generations. For reproduction, butterflies need a spacious cage, high temperature and high humidity. All these conditions are observed in the Moscow Zoo. Atlas caterpillars daily need a large number of branches of fodder plants, which are harvested by the zoo staff. For this reason, it is difficult to breed atlas during the winter months, but zoo staff are currently preparing experiments to feed this and other species on artificial nutrient media.

Atlas butterflies and caterpillars are now periodically displayed in the "Birds and Butterflies" pavilion in the New Territory of the zoo. For Saturnia and other night butterflies, a special exhibition is being prepared in the Orangery building on the Old Territory of the Zoo.

Research work with this species at the Moscow Zoo

Tkacheva E.Yu., Berezin M.V., Tkachev O.A., Zagorinsky A.A. Experiments on the creation of a culture of the peacock-eye Attacus atlas in the Moscow Zoo / in the book: Invertebrates in zoo collections. Materials of the Second International Seminar Moscow, Moscow Zoo, November 15-20, 2004. Moscow: Moscow Zoo, 2005, p. 183-187.

Pupation of atlases occurs on the branches of the host plant, so there is no need to transplant the pupating larvae. On the first day, the cocoon, which is still loose, allows you to see the larva inside, but later the cocoon becomes opaque. It is undesirable to touch it for at least three days, until pupation ends and the pupa hardens. 3 days after the start of pupation, the cocoon can be separated from the host plant. It is not difficult to determine whether the pupa has formed: for this, it is enough to shake the cocoon in your hand. Its heaviness and the rolling of the hard chrysalis inside indicate that everything is in order. The heavy cocoon, inside which one cannot hear the sound of a rolling chrysalis, is not yet "ready". There, most likely, there is a caterpillar in the process of pupation, so it must be left alone for at least another day. If the cocoon became light over time, this indicates that the pupa died and dried up inside the cocoon. In any case, after pupation is completed, the cocoon can be opened to check the condition of the pupa and its sex.

• diapause

When cocoons are kept in a warm and humid room, butterflies emerge after 2 weeks. However, if the cocoons are dried by holding them for several days at a relative humidity of 30 - 40%, the pupae may fall into a state of diapause. If this happens, it is very difficult, if not impossible, to predict the duration of diapause: it can last from one month to one year. Long-term diapause has no effect on the state of the pupa and the future butterfly, even if the cocoons are kept under conditions of low air humidity during the entire period of diapause. Unfortunately, attempts to stimulate the release of atlas pupae from diapause by a sharp change in the conditions of detention (increase in air humidity and/or temperature) are not successful. This feature of atlas pupae makes it very difficult to attempt to create a breeding culture, starting from producers brought from abroad at the (pupal stage. Two-day transportation of cocoons is enough to stimulate diapause, and since exit from diapause stretches for months, the chances of the simultaneous output of a male and a female drops sharply.Therefore, if you want to form a pair of butterflies hatching from imported cocoons, you need to have a large number of cocoons - preferably several dozen.In this case, the probability of a simultaneous emergence of several butterflies, from which one or two pairs can be formed Atlas butterflies are able to withstand prolonged cooling up to + 4 ° C. At the same time, they need high humidity, which can be provided by placing a piece of wet foam rubber or sphagnum in the cage. Cooling butterflies, you can briefly extend the period of their reproductive activity, in warm conditions several days Atlases, like other large tropical peacock-eyes, look good in exhibition enclosures, although they remain motionless during daylight hours.

Atlas is one of the largest (giant) butterflies. Belongs to the peacock-eye family, whose gigantic size will impress anyone.

The butterfly got its name "atlas" from the ancient Greek mythical hero Atlanta, or Atlas. He held the vault of heaven on his shoulders. Only a very large butterfly could get this name in its name.

The wingspan of the Atlas is up to 25 centimeters. In males, the anterior wings are somewhat larger than the hind wings. The females are the same size. This causes a gender difference: males have a shape similar to a triangle, females - to a square.

However, females are larger than males. Atlas ladies have a wingspan of up to 40 centimeters!

Butterfly bodies are shorter than wings. It is very voluminous, thick and red-brown in color. The coloration of the wings is the same in both males and females. The general tone is from chestnut to red, with a noticeable darkening in the center. Along the edges - a black border and light brown stripes.

Justifying its belonging to the peacock-eyes - on each wing there is a "peephole". It has little pigmentation and looks more like a triangle.

Atlas habitats are in Thailand, South China, Indonesia. Also, these butterflies are found in the foothills of the Himalayas. However, atlas is more common in tropical and subtropical forests.

Females do not lead a very "saturated" life. They move little and are close to the place of their pupation. They sit right there until they die.

Males are masters of aerobatics. They try to be in flight all the time, and in places with strong winds. So it is easier and easier for them to smell the females and find a mate for mating.

The most amazing thing is that adult butterflies do not eat anything! They live off the reserves accumulated during the "caterpillar" age. That is why the life of an adult butterfly (imago) is no more than 2 weeks.

Atlas caterpillars feed only on plant foods.

During mating and reproduction, females emit odorous substances (pheromones). Their concentration is so negligible that it is elusive to any living creature, except for males of their own species, and at a distance of up to 3 km from the female herself.

After mating, the female lays her eggs on the inner surface of the leaves. Egg diameter 25-30 mm. After about 2 weeks, caterpillars appear from them, whose goal is to eat as much energy reserves as possible.

During pupation, the caterpillar weaves a cocoon. Its size can exceed 11 centimeters in length. The cocoon is suspended to reduce the risk of being eaten.

In nature, the atlas has no enemies. But they reproduce very slowly, so any damage to the population requires a lot of time to recover.

Man destroyed these butterflies because of the cocoons. From the threads, people made loon silk, which is more durable than silk from silkworm threads.

Atlases, for some unknown reason, are still not listed in the World Red Book. However, their population is in dire need of protection.