Yellow & Black

desong · Post by **desong** » Sun Jul 22, 2007 7:55 pm

What does this turn into? Saw a bunch of them this morning, beautifully camouflaged.

Des

Post by **Pete Eeles** » Sun Jul 22, 2007 8:06 pm

Cinnabar moth. Found on ragwort everywhere

See http://ukmoths.org.uk/show.php?id=239

Cheers,

- Pete

desong · Post by **desong** » Sun Jul 22, 2007 9:02 pm

Wow

How incredible is the adult!! Thanks for the info Pete...

FlyByWire · Post by **FlyByWire** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 8:51 pm

I took this shot last weekend:

http://piccies.flybywire.org.uk/Butterf ... abars1.jpg

See how many you can spot! (I counted 29 in the pic). Of course there were many more outside the frame. Biggest concentration I have ever seen.

-Mike

brianwaugh · Post by **brianwaugh** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 8:56 pm

nice photos, you say great camoflage, I think the opposite, a good example of nature boldly saying ...look at me I am nasty tasting and horrible look at my warning colours and don't eat me..

eccles · Post by **eccles** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 9:17 pm

There's an oft quoted story of an eminent entomologist who decided that the cinnabar larva's colouration advertised its distastefulness, and proved it by eating one. Sure enough, it tasted bad. There was nothing in the story to suggest that the person concerned went on to prove the opposite by also eating well camoulflaged caterpillars though, so I take the story with a pinch of salt, metaphorically speaking, that is.

Dave McCormick · Post by **Dave McCormick** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 10:19 pm

Eating one? Now thats something I would not do. Thought they were black and yellow because of the ragort they eat?

eccles · Post by **eccles** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 5:05 pm

In that case they would be green and yellow.

Cotswold Cockney · Post by **Cotswold Cockney** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 10:07 pm

I believe the Oxford Ragwort contains cyanide. My own little 'Nature Reserve' I maintain has a good population of them...but I cut down lots of the foodplant as it grows and spreads much too fast ... hard work that!

Years ago, when rearing some Adonis Blues, I transferred a number of near fully grown larvae into an airtight plastic container with copious cuttings of foodplant whilst I netted over a large tub of fresh growing foodplant ready for them. I was delayed transferring them and did not do so until the following day. As I opened their airtight container, I caught a strong wiff of what to my sense of smell was 'Almonds'. This is again an indicator of the presence of cyanide I believe. The larvae of the various 'Burnets' have a similar colouration as do some Lycaenidae.

Breeding thos e Adonis Blues was thirty years ago. I bred a large number that time from a single tatty washed out skinny female I found in a rain sodden field near my relatives down in mid Wilts. I took the poor thing (which was so wet its wings were stuck together so unable to fly) home anyway as it would not survive another night of such heavy rain. The poor thing was saturated through. It's abdomen was very thin and I guess she had already laid most of her ova. I fed her up on a weak honey solution and next day back home in Gloucester, she had dried out and was very perky with a much fuller looking abdomen!

With the latter in mind I placed her onto a large tub of growing foodplant netted over which in previous seasons was used for rearing Chalkhill Blues and also some small hibernating larvae of the Mountain Clouded Yellow (Colias phicomene ) which also completed their developement in my garden. Two days later I was pleased to see the female Adonis Blue still in active but tatty good shape. On closer examination, saw she had laid at least one hundred ova on the H.cosmosa! Amazing considering the state she was in a few days before. All the ova hatched and I was able to release a few back in the original habitat and friends were pleased to have some of the surplus too.