Kitchen Garden Forum

Hi all,

I hope you will be able to access these 2 pictures of a lovely little red and black butterfly. It was flitting around my plot, perhaps attracted by the prospect of camouflage among red-and-black petalled poppies - but it wasn't anywhere near them!

Can anyone identify it?

http://www.flickr.com/photo/68772211@N00/2664908017/
and
http://www.flickr.com/photo/68772211@N00/2665729454/

If you try and fail to get the pictures, please let me know. I've forgotten how I used to do this and I've lost the instructions.

mike

various offerings including one of a foot !!!! no butterfly though

Another midnightoil burner!

No, I've just found my idiot's guide to posting pictures. let's try again.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3203/266 ... 790b_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3033/266 ... 96e8_o.jpg


Any joy there?

mike

Hello Mike
Its a Cinnabar Moth. The caterpillar is quite distinctive too with yellow and black stripes around its body.

John

John wrote:Hello Mike
Its a Cinnabar Moth. The caterpillar is quite distinctive too with yellow and black stripes around its body.

John

Mike

If you have any ragwort you will soon see masses of the caterpillars feeding.

Takes me back many, many years to when as a young lad, I collected the caterpillars and kept them in a shoe box with fresh ragwort every day until they pupated. Life seemed a lot simpler then.

beautiful aren't they

Yes, me too PJ. As a child I lived in Amersham, and the common was ringed with ragwort sporting its swarms of caterpillars. I think the moth is worth preserving some clumps of ragwort or groundsel for, even though they self-seed prolifically.

mike

Hi Mike,

Yes, I agree. There is a rough bit of land between the beach and the golf course here, and it's covered in ragwort. There's already quite a few caterpillars on it.

Never walk through ragwort wearing flip flops. Take it from one who knows