Cinnabar Moth caterpillars are big and fat at this time of year and are easily spotted as they are almost exclusively found on Ragwort - an Buachalán Buí - and have colourfully hooped bodies ...

The Cinnabar Moth, a colourful red and black moth that flies by day is a common species especially on mature sand dunes from as early as May to as late as August.

In the 1960's, biologist William Hamilton became interested in the caterpillars of the cinnabar moth. ... is that all the caterpillars in a single cluster are from the same set of eggs.

In cinnabar moths, the larvae of which feed on toxic ragworts with nasty alkaloid chemicals (Jacobine, Jacodine, and Jaconine), absorb the poison to which they are immune and display themselves ...

Cinnabar moth caterpillar and soldier beetles . ... It uses its long ovipositor to bore a hole in the timber into which it lays its egg. The new adult will emerge in three years’ time.

What is this flying insect? There were quite a lot of them gathered on the wall of my father's house in Connemara. – Tom Seoighe, Moycullen, Co Galway It is probably a hatch of cinnabar moths ...