The Annual Yellow & Black Cinnabar Moth Invasion

general, photography 3 Responses »
Jul 012010
cinnabar moth caterpillars

After spotting a Cinnabar Moth a couple of weeks ago I started looking for the tell tale signs of the yearly invasion and today I found the first signs of the annual ragwort decimation by these tiny Cinnabar Moth (Tyria jacobaeae) caterpillars. They were only about 1cm long but they were everywhere I looked, marching over their chosen battleground, leaving no Ragwort plant standing. Were they in Queens Park where I’d seen the adult and been looking all week? Were they hell… this morning I parked the car and not  3 feet from the door was a mass of tiny yellow and [... read rest of post]

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Crazy Coloured Caterpillars

photography 6 Responses »
Jul 132009
Crazy Coloured Caterpillars

Found a few of these little beauties devouring the Ragwort near the car park during lunchtime. They’re caterpillars of the Cinnabar Moth (Tyria jacobaeae) and even though they are bright yellow and black are surprising hard to spot while the wind is blowing the vegetation all over the place. The moth itself is a beautiful deep green / black and ‘cinnabar’ red and lays about 30-60 eggs on the underside of the Ragwort leaves. These then hatch all at once and the caterpillars are so voracious that it’s not unusual for them to either die due to lack of food [... read rest of post]

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