This message is from: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Wrote:
Fiona, The catapiller that someone talked about that was introduced to the Northwest to help control Tansy Ragwort is the caterpiller from the cinnibar moth. Both the moth and the catapiller are lovely. The moth is scarlet with black trim and the catapiller is orange with many black stripes. The catapillers do eat the plant down fairly well when enough of them are present on the plant but I have seen flowers push through on the mutilated stems later in the season when the catapillers have gone. Persistant buggers, those plants. This is a classic response to herbivory on the part of a plant whose goal after all is to survive and reproduce. Many plants have the additional response of increasing defensive chemicals in such new tissue so as to deter attack from subsequent herbovires of either the same species that caused the first defoliation or a different one.
