has any one seen or heard of them?

Question

im on about a moth/butter fly type creture i saw on holiday in cornwall. its black with red spots.i saw them in a book once and it said it was called a zyagnied moth (cant remember the exact spelling) anyway it said its caterpillar feed only on some poisonous plant called rag weed and it kept the pison until they become moths.

please pardon any spelling mistakes for got to run spell check :(

Answer 1

You are probably referring to the Burnet moth (maybe the six-spotted one) which is active during the day, particularly in meadows where Ragwort and Bird's Foot Trefoil are found. The adult is black which can look bluish-green iridescent and beautiful large carmine red spots. The caterpillars are yellowish-green with rows of black and yellowish spots. The colours of this moth are warning to anything who might eat them; they are distasteful.

Ragwort (or ragweed in USA) is pisonous to horses.

The 6-spot Burnet moth is Zygaena filipendulae.

Answer 2

The Zygaenidae are a family of Lepidoptera (moths) typically day-flying with a slow fluttering flight, and with rather clubbed antennae. They generally have a metallic sheen and often prominent spots of red or yellow. The bright colours are a warning to predators that the moths are distasteful - they contain hydrogen cyanide throughout all stages of their life-cycle. Unlike most insects with such toxins, they manufacture these themselves rather than obtaining them from host plants (Scoble 1992). They are known to have mimicry complexes based on these toxins (Naumann et al., 1999).

Larvae are stout and may be flattened. Most feed on herbaceous plants, although some are vine or tree feeders. A fleshy extension of the thorax covers the head. Most feed on herbaceous plants, but there are some tree-feeders. Larvae in two subfamilies, Chalcosiinae and Zygaeninae, have cavities in which they store the cyanide, and can excrete it as defensive droplets (Niehuis et al., 2006)

The majority of Zygaenids are tropical, but they are nevertheless quite well represented in temperate regions. There are about 1000 species. Various species are commonly known as Burnet or Forester moths, often qualified by the number of spots, although other families also have 'foresters.' They are also sometimes called Smoky moths.

hope that helps :)

Answer 3

Could you perhaps be referring to moths in the Sphingidae family? These commonly eat Ragweed and such and retain some of the poison.

Here is a link which shows the various genus's and species:
http://tpittaway.tripod.com/sphinx/list.htm