cinnabar moth
tyria jacobaeae latin

The larvae of the Cinnabar Moth can eat nothing else.

Monophagous species, like Cinnabar moth, Tyria jacobaeae are scarce.

Cinnabar moths are day-flying insects.

An exception is among different species of Cuckoo which eat hairy and poisonous caterpillars including cinnabar moth larvae.

The Cinnabar Moth feeds mostly on ragwort and has been introduced as a control measure in places where it has become a problem weed.

The cinnabar moth (Tyria jacobaeae) is a brightly colored arctiid moth.

The beetle is most effective when used in conjunction with the cinnabar moth (Tyria jacobaeae), another ragwort biocontrol agent.

Ragwort is best known as the food of caterpillars of the Cinnabar moth Tyria jacobaeae.

Yet the red and black cinnabar moth has caterpillars which, while they are happy to eat innocuous weeds such as groundsel, are also ragwort specialists.

Cinnabar moth (Tyria jacobaeae)

Nosema tyriae parasitising the cinnabar moth Tyria jacobaeae (an arctiid moth)

Without doubt the most common of those species that are totally reliant on Ragwort for their survival is the Cinnabar Moth (Tyria jacobaeae).

At times, it resembles a mix of Edward Gorey and "Jabberwocky" - the cinnabar moth caterpillar, for example, helps control "the noxious tansy ragwort weed."

Its liking for the introduced ragwort causes its caterpillars to be sometimes misidentified as those of the Cinnabar moth which was introduced as a biological control for ragwort.

Biological: The pathogen rust fungus or Puccinia lagenophorae and the Cinnabar moth Tyria jacobaeae have both been used and studied in an attempt to control infestation of Senecio vulgaris.

For example, the caterpillar of the cinnabar moth (Callimorpha jacobea) resembles the flower head of its food plant (ragwort) from a distance but its black and yellow stripes are aposematic when seen from nearby.

The cinnabar moth eats groundsel between June and August, but the seeds germinate and the plant grows as soon as the ground is warm enough (and after a warm rain), making this an insufficient control almost everywhere groundsel can be found.

Some Lepidoptera species eat many of the Senecio genus; additional studies via electrophysiological recordings have shown that the taste sensilla of the Cinnabar moth larvae respond (get excited) specifically to the pyrrolizidine alkaloids, which all Senecio are known to contain.