Treasure of the month: The bramble zipper butterfly
13 March 2020
Photo: BUND NRW Naturschutzstiftung / W. Schön
Nature watchers usually see green: the bramble tip butterfly usually has its wings folded up when sitting to camouflage itself among leaves.
Photo: UHH/CeNak, Steinkröger
A view of the collection box that houses the Blackberry Zip butterflies at LIB.
Photo: UHH/CeNak, Steinkröger
Good to see in the collection: the brown upper side of the butterfly.
Photo: UHH/CeNak, Steinkröger
Comparison between the upper and lower side of the butterfly.
Photo: UHH/CeNak, Steinkröger
Detail of the upper side.
Photo: UHH/CeNak, Steinkröger
Detail of the underside.
It is not only our Treasure of the Month, but also the Butterfly of the Year 2020, chosen by BUND and the BUND NRW Nature Conservation Foundation to draw attention to the declining populations in Germany. The bramble butterfly is quite frugal when it comes to its habitat and food. Nevertheless, like two-thirds of all butterflies in Germany, it is an endangered species. Its habitat stretches from North Africa across Europe to Siberia.
Its name is quite misleading: although it is called the blackberry tip butterfly (Callophrys rubi) and belongs to the family of blue butterflies, it is known for its shimmering green underside of its wings. In order to camouflage itself among the leaves, it always keeps its wings folded shut when sitting, so that its brown upper wing surface is rarely visible. With a maximum wingspan of 28 millimeters, it is a small moth that also flies through native forests, meadows and heaths from April to July.
Structure-rich, semi-open sites are its home. Here it finds flowers, such as clover, buttercups or hawthorn, on whose nectar it can feed. Apart from the fact that it likes warmth, it is considered to be quite undemanding with regard to inhabited habitats. For this reason, BUND considers the significant decline in populations in parts of Germany to be particularly alarming.
A total of 73 specimens of the butterfly can be found in the CeNak entomological collection. Most of them date from the 1950s and 60s. The specimens were collected all over Europe - most of them come from Germany, Spain, Finland and Laponia (a Swedish part of Lapland). The distinctive color of the wings is still clearly visible today: if you turn the brown Blackberry Zipwing butterflies, you will be fascinated by the shimmering green reverse side, even in the specimens from the collection.
In Hamburg, for example, it can still be found in the Fischbeker Heide. But here, too, it has been on the Red List of threatened species since 2007, as its population is steadily declining. In the preliminary program of the 1st Hamburg Insect Week, which takes place from August 28 to September 6, amateur researchers can go in search of the butterfly of the year together with Torsten Demuth. The guided tour through Fischbeker Heide is on May 9 and starts at 11 am. Information about the event will be available here from the beginning of April.
Further information
NABU - Schmetterling des Jahres 2020
BUND NRW Naturschutzstiftung - Schmetterling des Jahres 2020
Weitere Bilder auf naturgucker.de