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 black warriors.Looking back at last year I think they’re a bit behind but who can blame them – it was a bit of a chilly start to the year…

Luckily I had the ‘baby’ camera with me, the Canon Powershot A640 so I was able to get a relatively good close-up although the breeze made it a bit tricky. The more I use the A640 the more I like it even though I’ve had it for ages. Sometimes I get fixated in thinking that the EOS 450D with all it’s lenses and gizmos is always better and most of the time it is but I can put the Powershot in my pocket, it takes good pictures and it’s macro facility is astounding so from now on when I go out deliberately to take a few photographs I’m going to take them both.

Spotted a Comma butterfly newly hatched and hanging of it’s old crysalis yesterday but didn’t have a camera with me but I’ve got my eye on another pupae which hopefully should ‘hatch’ soon – it would be good to grab a shot of the butterfly emerging but the weather is a bit touch and go in the North West at the moment and catching it at that stage will need a fair bit of luck.

Cinnabar Moth Caterpillers on Ragwort

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 (they eat so much of it) or turn cannibalistic. I’d not heard of caterpillers eating their egg mates but I suppose in a strange way it ensures the survival of the species.

The yellow and black colouring is, as normal, a warning that they are toxic and “do not eat me” which they gain from the Ragworth leaves.