What type of insect is this?

This insect was visiting the flowers on my Wrightii Religiousa tonight. Red wings and a blue and black body with several white dots.


.

Rob, I do not find it in any of my "pests" books, so it's probably a friendly bug.

I'd say it's a moth of some sort.

Hello ...
I'm pretty sure that is a butterfly, is a form of mimicry, if I'm not mistaken is a Zyganaidae. I apologize if wrong.

Looks like a species of Burnet Moth to me. There's a similar one here http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/family/Zygaenidae but there are about 1000 of them!

Oh Popan, I just noticed that is the species you mentioned. They are moths, not butterflies.

So their caterpillars may damage some kinds of plants, but the adult moths wold be pollinators. Chances are that bonsai species are NOT their food of choice as caterpillars.

If it is like our Burnet Moth which is a day flying moth..The caterpillars feed on ragwort ...a weed that grows on road verges and building sites...etc.

Thanks Kev for clarification, is not really a butterfly. But even I recognized species belongs,sory, familii . More than 20 years we had an impressive collection Lepidoptera, now is donated to the school where my daughter walked.

Bob Brunt wrote:If it is like our Burnet Moth which is a day flying moth..The caterpillars feed on ragwort ...a weed that grows on road verges and building sites...etc.

I thought it was the Cinnabar moth that fed on Ragwort?

Spot on Will..I should have looked it up before posting....