Hawthorn - white butterfly with black veins

White butterflies appearing in the spring in our gardens, orchards and parks are the nymphalids of the Whiting family. These include not only harmless charmers, but also wreckers of vegetable and fruit crops, such as cabbage, croissant, and redridge. Hawthorn - a white butterfly, with black veins on its wings, also refers to the genus of whitewocks. The span of its wings reaches 70 millimeters, and the size of the butterfly itself exceeds 3 centimeters. The distribution area of this representative of the Lepidoptera group is Eurasia and North Africa.

Description

Butterfly, white with black veins, so impressive with its color, which is remembered from the very childhood. She settles in the meadows, in the gardens, very often it can be found on the banks of the reservoirs. This butterfly appears in early May and moves not alone, but in whole groups, creating a spectacular beauty. The butterfly itself feeds on flower nectar. But the caterpillars, which hatch from numerous (for the summer this figure reaches 500 pieces) of eggs laid by the female butterfly, bring irreparable harm. The most damaging are fruit trees, such as apple trees, pears, hawthorn (hence the name of the butterfly) and buckthorn. Caterpillars devour not only the kidneys, depriving plants of future foliage, but also buds of future flowers. Thus, a white butterfly with black veins causes a low harvest of fruit crops.

After the end of the period of nutrition and growth (approximately two weeks after the discolouration of the gardens) caterpillars creep along branches and fences, release the web and gradually pupate. Pupa of hawthorn (green or yellow with spots of black color) ripens for 2 weeks, after which a young butterfly appears from it. Only one generation of hawthorns hatchs in a single summer.

The legend of the bloody rain

Hawthorn - a white butterfly with black veins on its wings - is the heroine of legends associated with frightening bloody rains. These rains were considered as harbingers of the tragedy and frightened the uneducated peasants very much. However, later the scientists found out their reason. It turned out that at the moment of turning the hawthorn pupa into imago, it releases a small amount of reddish liquid. If there were a lot of such pupae, then during the summer rain, the liquid, mixing with rain drops, was a rather frightening sight - the rain turned to bloody.

Another white wrecker

Another butterfly is a pest of fruit trees - it's an American white butterfly. It is slightly larger than the hawthorn, its wings are white with black and brown dots. Unlike hawthorn, she is a representative of the genus of the bear.

Methods of struggle

With pests of fruit trees and shrubs it is necessary to fight, using for their destruction various insecticides. To do this, even before the flowering begins, they spray the unraveled buds of the plants. In addition, during the entire season it is necessary to destroy all the cobweb nests, and in autumn remove from the trees all twisted leaves, in which pupae can hide. Collected nests and leaves must be burned.