Day-flying Moths

Cinnabar Moth Caterpillar

Now for some colourful day-flying moths which are well worth welcoming to our greenspace. Among them are the striking red and black Six-spot Burnet and Cinnabar moths, the caterpillars of which feed on BIRDS'S-FOOT TREFOIL, and RAGWORT respectively. Their bright colours both as caterpillars and adults offer protection from birds by indicating that they are distasteful, although presumably one or two have to be eaten first for the birds to learn the lesson.
This type of vivid protective coloration will be seen on any visit to a tropical butterfly house, but native British butterflies tend to rely more on camouflage than toxicity to evade predators. The day-flying Burnet and Cinnabar moths, however, provide us with striking native examples of warning colouration.

Moths of the Night, but often Spotted During the Day
Another moth well worth catering for is the extremely attractive pink and olive-green Elephant Hawk Moth. It's caterpillars' demands are easily met - ROSEBAY WILLOW HERB. The adults are nocturnal, flying from dusk and resting by day among their nectar plants. They seek out flowers that open or produce their nectar at night, including honeysuckle (Lonicera) and other tubular flowers from which they extracts nectar on the wing, hovering above without having to settle on them. Butterflies can’t do that; they need some sort of foothold.

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SIX SPOT BURNET MOTH
  Zygaena filipendulae

With its bright red wings and striking black spots, the Six-spot Burnet Moth leaves us in no doubt that moths can be as colourful as butterflies.

In this case the bright colours are a warning to birds and other predators that it is too distasteful to tackle. If they make the mistake of attacking one they are likely to avoid such moths in future.

With the wingspan of a medium size butterfly, it's on the wing from June to September, visiting flowers for their nectar. 

The female deposits her eggs on the leaves of BIRD'S-FOOT TREFOIL ready for its offspring to eat. The caterpillar accumulates distasteful chemicals from the leaves which make it distasteful to predators and it remains so as a chrysalis and adult butterfly.

It hibernates as a caterpillar.

CINNABAR MOTH
Tyria jacobaeae

 Another day-flying moth with warning colours of bright red and black is the Cinnabar, named after the  mineral of that name.

The main caterpillar food plant in this case is Ragwort, a striking plant with plates of yellow flowers popular with pollinators. Most farm and wild animals avoid eating it, as it can be toxic if repeatedly consumed in large amounts, as when its dried leaves are fed along with hay.

The cinnabar caterpillar accumulates the toxic substances in Ragwort leaves in order to make itself distasteful to predators, a distastefulness which stays with it into adulthood.

The female lays about 60 eggs at a time; the caterpillars are such voracious feeders that unless there are large stands of ragwort, most are likely to starve, and even resort to eating each other.

In parts of America and Australia where Ragwort inadvertently introduced from Europe has become an invasive weed, the cinnabar moth has been introduced to control it.

They can consume related plants like Groundsel but these are too small to satisfy their appetites for long.

RAGWORT  is a plant worth encouraging in towns and areas where there are no farm livestock to worry about, not only because it is the main foodplant of the Cinnabar Moth, but also of immense value as an easy to reach source of nectar for bees, hoverflies and other pollinators that don't have the long tongues necessary to extract nectar from the flowers of honeysuckle or teasel for example.

 ELEPHANT HAWK MOTH
Deilephila elphinor

 ROSEBAY WILLOW HERB is a favorite food of this fascinating moth with its pink stripes - adults drink the nectar and caterpillars eat the leaves. Female Elephant Hawk Moths lay their eggs singly on the leaves  of Rosebay Willowherb  (Epilobium angustifolium) and other willowherbs, but bedstraws (Galium),  Enchanter’s Nightshade and fuchsias are also used. Caterpillars will also eat Himalayan Balsam,  As this is an extremely invasive garden escape which tends to swamp out native vegetation, the Elephant Hawk-moth should perhaps be exploited as a biological control agent.

The caterpillars are usually seen when leaving their food plant looking for somewhere to pupate.

The adult has a pink line running  right down the centre of its back, which when at rest easily distinguishes it from its smaller relative, the even more brightly coloured Small Elephant Hawk Moth.

Despite their bright colours they do not seem to be distasteful to predators but depend on camouflage to avoid being eaten. They are surprisingly well camouflaged against the flowers of the willowherbs.

 But why ‘elephant’? They are certainly large, but the body of the caterpillars narrows at the front which is said to be reminiscent of an elephant’s trunk, hence the name.

They over-winter as a pupa in loose litter at the base of their foodplant.

GARDEN TIGER MOTH
Arctia caja

Only the rear wings of this species are orange-red with black spots but again it acts as a warning to predators that it is distasteful. The adults fly at night, but the large hairy Woolly Bear caterpillars of the Garden Tiger Moth are often seen wandering fearlessly across paths on a sunny day protected by its thick irritating hairs, although cuckoos seems to specialise in eating hairy caterpillars that other birds avoid.

Although widespread and eating a much wider range of common plants than most butterflies and moths they are nowhere near as common as they once were.
In town a major factor in the decline is likely to be due to the relentless spraying of pavements to prevent any sign of life from emerging from the cracks, and the paving over of gardens.

As they will eat a wide range of garden 'weeds', including nettles, dock, sorrel, burdocks, by not weeding you will be doing them a favour.

Every one of the 2,500 or more species of moth so far identified in Britain, is in its own way as fascinating as butterflies.

The male Emperor Moth below is certainly as attractive as any butterfly. Note the feathery antennae used to detect the scent of a female as he flies around during the day. The Emperor is one of those moths, the Oak Eggar another, where the males tend to fly by day and the females by night. Once mated, the females fly off under cover of darkness to find suitable plants on which to lay their eggs. Both of these extremely large attractive moths are common throughout Britain and Ireland.

None of the three moths pictured below - Emperor, Oak Eggar and Wood Tiger moths - feed as adults, but depend on the food reserves laid down as a caterpillar to produce eggs and power their flight. They are not interested in pretty flowers, just a highly nutritious diet for their caterpillars, as this needs to see them through their life cycle.