Story: Poisonous plants and fungi

Ragwort plant and cinnabar moth

Ragwort is a highly toxic pasture weed, causing liver damage in cattle and horses. The cinnabar moth was introduced in 1929 as a biological control against the plant. Over the years its caterpillars, which feed on ragwort leaves, have managed to control the spread of the plant in some parts of New Zealand.

Using this item

Natural Sciences Image Library of New Zealand

Reference: In0370Rbt.tif

by Dick Roberts

This item has been provided for private study purposes (such as school projects, family and local history research) and any published reproduction (print or electronic) may infringe copyright law. It is the responsibility of the user of any material to obtain clearance from the copyright holder.

All images & media in this story

How to cite this page

Maggy Wassilieff, Poisonous plants and fungi – Animals and poisonous plants, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/9790/ragwort-plant-and-cinnabar-moth (accessed 5 June 2026).

Story by Maggy Wassilieff, published 1 March 2009.

Comments

Katherine Macfarlane
17 January 2012

The cinnabar moth showed up in our area about two years ago. Before then no one had ever seen the moth in our region before Horohoro Rotorua New Zealand. The moth can be seen in the thousands at night. just in our area now. can any body tell me why?