There are a couple of orange and black striped caterpillars that you will commonly encounter in the Loire Valley in the summer. The French for caterpillar is chenille.
Cinnabar Moth caterpillars
Tyria jacobaeae
Goutte-de-sang (= 'drop of blood')
The species is found all over France, but is particularly abundant in the north-western quarter of France. Nearly always when you see the caterpillar it will be on ragworts Jacobaea spp (Fr. Seneçons), and you rarely see just one, but usually small groups of them, often near the top of the plant. They have the disconcerting habit of twitching and waving their heads when disturbed. This is presumably a defence mechanism, to remind you that they are toxic, due to the plant toxins they've consumed in eating the host plant. They can be found anywhere there is ragwort -- dry grasslands, scrub, domestic and public urban gardens, roadsides and railway tracks. There are some concerns that the species is declining because its host plant ragwort is commonly destroyed as a toxic weed.
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| Cinnabar moth Tyria jacobaeae caterpillars on Common Ragwort Jacobaea vulgaris. Photographed July 2020 in my orchard, Indre et Loire. |
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