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Project Noah Nature School
Tyria jacobaeae
These caterpillars are orange and black stripped with long hairs. They become a beautiful red and black colored moth. They are beneficial because they feed on ragwort. This herb is poisonous for grazing animals (horses, cattle, etc.) because it contains alkaloids: http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/657... So the moth caterpillars can be used as biocontrol agent to reduce ragwort in grazing fields. Both the caterpillar as the moth become unpalatable by eating this plant.
Grasslands where ragwort is aboundant. In Flanders and Netherland, that means all over the place..
Spotted on Jul 7, 2011
Submitted on Jul 7, 2011
11 Comments
A very pretty caterpillar....
Thanks all :-)
Luv the 3rd shot! great series...
wow this is beautiful :)
Thanks, Alice! :-)
Wonderful series.
BTW, I love the moth but have no pictures of it yet. Will you show some, sttweets?
A good plague because they eat a poisonous plant and by that help a lot to our horses and cows in Belgium and Nederland. The goats are somewhow more resistent to the poisson but still is better to get rid of these yellow flowered plants a bit.
I've been outside several times in the last 2 weeks and have seen the Cinnabar Moth Caterpillar a lot (I will upload pictures later, but hey look quite similar). It seems a plague at the moment.
thanks!
Nice macro!