# Cinnabar moth caterpillars - Tyria jacobaeae



## Wandering (Jul 19, 2009)

Pretty caterpillars, taste rank and are poisonous due to the alkaloids they sequester from their foodplants - ragwort here


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## dan2231 (Jul 16, 2010)

Hi
Do you know what this is


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## Kuja (Dec 14, 2011)

dan2231 said:


> Hi
> Do you know what this is
> image



ah, the elusive invisible caterpillar!


on topic, i love these little guys, was a few outside my garage recently, rain seems to have killed the plant and them though.


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## Wandering (Jul 19, 2009)

Could have been the rain but more likely it was a self inflicted wipeout! These guys are notorious for consuming the entire foodplant and resorting to cannibalism before starving to death! Crazy fools!


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## henry415 (Apr 1, 2012)

Wandering said:


> Could have been the rain but more likely it was a self inflicted wipeout! These guys are notorious for consuming the entire foodplant and resorting to cannibalism before starving to death! Crazy fools!


when i see too many on a foodplant i tend to move them about a bit. : victory:


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## dan2231 (Jul 16, 2010)

Kuja said:


> ah, the elusive invisible caterpillar!
> 
> 
> on topic, i love these little guys, was a few outside my garage recently, rain seems to have killed the plant and them though.



:lol2: found out my invisible caterpillar was in actual fact a Elephant hawk moth


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## Wandering (Jul 19, 2009)

henry415 said:


> when i see too many on a foodplant i tend to move them about a bit. : victory:


Lol, should help  Just to clarify... what actually tends to happen is that the caterpillars (on ragwort at least) eat every leaf in sight, then get hungry... cue cannibalism and gratuitous larva on larva violence! I believe the problem is that the remaining 'pillars have not eaten enough to get them through pupation!


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## Woodsman (Aug 12, 2008)

Wandering said:


> Could have been the rain but more likely it was a self inflicted wipeout! These guys are notorious for consuming the entire foodplant and resorting to cannibalism before starving to death! Crazy fools!


Very interesting! is this a proven fact?
I've carried out work on Lepidoptera on a Coastal NNR for many years,
Cinnabars are very common on the dunes here as is ragwort.We haven't found any evidence of cannibalism.What normally happens is as soon as a plant is stripped bare the larvae move to a different plant.
Perhaps cannibalism happens on sites with few foodplants? or when rearing larvae in captivity with a limited supply of ragwort.


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## Wandering (Jul 19, 2009)

There are only snippets of info and I imagine a lot of it is anecdotal... I'll see if there is a paper out there anywhere!


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## henry415 (Apr 1, 2012)

I have reared them and never noticed cannibalism, but what i have noticed however is a high % of parasitic wasp infestations!


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## redvoodoo (Aug 12, 2012)

Wandering said:


> Pretty caterpillars, taste rank and are poisonous due to the alkaloids they sequester from their foodplants - ragwort here
> 
> image


They're very pretty


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