Tobacco Hornworms??

10 years ago

I found two of these guys in my bushes last weekend, one was roughly 4 inches and the other was roughly 3 inches. My two kids were extremely interested in them and after looking on the internet and determining that they were not dangerous, we captured them. I looked more information up on them and came to the conclusion they were tobacco hornworms, I am not sure if this correct after seeing that my little guys have green horns. I thought they burrowed underground so we added dirt to the tank. The largest one went into the ground the next day (this was roughly 3 or so days ago). I decided to check on him and discovered he is still a caterpillar, I thought he would have gone into a cocoon by now. A startling thing though is the smaller one did the craziest thing. He shrank! No joke, he went from 3 inches long to the size of a normal caterpillar. How is this possibly? Could anyone help me?

Comments (3)

saccharum
10 years ago
That does look like Manduca sexta (tomato/tobacco hornworm). The one that shrunk may be in the "prepupa" stage, before it molts into a pupa. They are probably both somewhere in that process, they fall to the ground and go immobile for a while as they prepare for the pupal molt. Check out the link below for a series of images showing each stage.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tomato Hornworm Moth
rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
10 years ago
I saw this post on another forum and immediately jumped to the same conclusion that this big guy is a tobacco or tomato hornworm. But it just dawned on me that we missed some clues! The color of the horn and the fact that those are NOT tomatoes or potatoes, etc.

There are other green hornworms and I'm thinking that this might be a Laurel Sphinx moth cat. The horn will be green or black.

What do you think, saccharum?
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Having trouble keeping the two hornworms straight? I recently heard this tall tale and will never forget which is which again: The tobacco hornworm likes to smoke tobacco products so much that he has cigarette shaped markings on his side (the straight diagonal lines). The tomato hornworm does not like tobacco....maybe is even an ex-smoker. He has broken cigarettes (V shaped markings) adorning his sides. I've found lots of these caterpillers on tomatoes and a few on potatoes, but never found any on the nearby peppers even though all three are favorite foods. After seeing what's left of your pepper, I'm glad they never made it to my peppers. Tomatoes always grow much quicker for me and still stand a chance after the hornworms. The peppers would probably be done for the year.
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I'm so depressed :( A few days ago I discovered the hornworm I got when he was so small was parisitized. Now today the bigger one that only wanted to eat the hot pepper plants was parisitized. Now I have no hornworms left. You'd think it would be so silly to cry and get upset about a bug, but they aren't just bugs to me. :( I hate those wasps so much!! I have no idea how the one I found first that was so huge escaped the wasps, but he's still under the soil. I'm starting to think he's never going to hatch into the moth. Maybe he'll end up waiting all winter. I guess maybe I should dig him up to check on him again. Everything looked good the last time.
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Another moth that will breed more of these tomato plant munchers? Nope. Bird food. lol I have compassion for all living things. I can't say that I didn't feel bad about it. He was quite beautiful after all. Once I got over the creeped out feeling from having my hand right by him and not even knowing. Even spiders. I don't like them but they are so helpful that they can't be all bad, right? So I leave them alone. I'm sure that bird had a nice full tummy!
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You asked " Why is it eating tomato, not tobacco plants! " Because that's what they do. If you rear it out, you should get a large showy moth.
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saccharum
10 years ago
That's a good point, there are a number of cats in this group that look pretty similar. I guess I leaped at Manduca sexta because I'd reared them before. The horn color isn't always a reliable feature, but along with your point that it's not on a solanaceous plant, that does make me think I was wrong.

But I still think it's likely that they were preparing to pupate when they fell down, went immobile, and shrank. :)

Tobacco Hornworms??

Comments (3)

saccharum

rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7

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saccharum

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