This will be my last offering in this caterpillar series. Thank you for your interest.
These caterpillars can be found in their hundreds munching away on yellow-flowered ragwort, and their bold black-and-gold stripes make them easy to identify.
Ragwort is toxic, but the cinnabar moth caterpillar benefits from its toxicity by eating enough to become toxic themselves, and their colourful stripes are a warning to predators: I’m poisonous and taste terrible, so don’t try to eat me!
Being voracious eaters, large populations can easily decimate an entire patch of ragwort and many caterpillars will starve if their food runs out before they are fully grown, so as competition intensifies the caterpillars become more aggressive and may even turn to cannibalism in their quest for calories.
The following spring, they emerge as beautiful black and red moths. It is thanks to this vibrant red colouration that the moth earned its unusual name, inspired by the red mineral cinnabar - a toxic mercury ore that was once widely used as an artist’s pigment. The ragwort’s toxins remain in their bodies and still provide an effective defence against predators.
Pamela.
Tags: Insect
Lepidoptera
Larva
Close-up and macro
Tyria jacobaeae
Wildlife and nature
Herbivore
macrolepidoptera
arctinae
callimorphina
black and orange stripes
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