Quote:
Originally Posted by Bob Hobden
"Sacha" wrote[color=blue][i]
We were our walking in Richmond Park on Tuesday and came across a large
Oxford Ragwort plant covered in butterflies, there must have been a hundred
Meadow Browns all over the plant taking nectar. It was like a cloud.
Strangely other plants had none feeding on them.
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Was up at Ribblehead Quarry the other day looking at the ragworts coveed in cinnabar moth caterpillars. Apparently the cinnabar moths absorb the poisonous substance from the ragwort and in their turn become poisonous, hence their yellow and black warning colouration, and the fact they see no need to hide themselves.
But we were also finding them on coltsfoot, but on no other plants, and when I googled, I found that the same poisonous substance is found in Coltsfoot (but not in many other plants) in small quantities, along with a closely related also poisonous substance. It's for this reason they choose coltsfoot as an alternative feedplant once they've stripped all the ragwort in an area.
Meanwhile, I found this beauty on our lavender and marjoram this morning (several of them)
Pyrausta aurata - UKMoths
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