16 Oct
Tomato or Tobacco Hornworm
I noticed two of these on a tomato plant of mine, not sure which they are (tobacco or tomato) hornworms.
They are general pests to most of the solanacae family (potatos, tomatos, tobacco), though quite pretty.
This one below has been parasitized by a tiny wasp. The wasp basically infects the hornworm with it’s larvae and they digest the worm from the inside. After a while the wasp larvae exit the hornworm body, spin coccoons and then become adult wasps. The image below shows the papery white coccoons of the wasp pupae on the body of a dead hornworm.
You’re having fun with the creep-out-the-friends-list pics today, aren’t you? 😛
October 16th, 2006 at 4:47 pmYou betcha!
They are even creepier to tomato plants, as this one defoliated an entire plant.
October 16th, 2006 at 4:49 pmAwesome photos. I love the wasp photos too.
October 16th, 2006 at 5:50 pmThank You 🙂 🙂
October 16th, 2006 at 5:54 pmThat’s really gross in a really interesting way.
October 16th, 2006 at 6:08 pmIndeed!
October 16th, 2006 at 6:12 pmOh man, we use to have those all the time on our tomato plants back when I was growing up in SoCal. They are really destructive to the plants, but still, being eaten alive by other bugs seems harsh! — I posted some images for you on my blog.
October 26th, 2006 at 10:11 pmpoorguy…or girl…lol
November 25th, 2006 at 7:16 amWhat is interesting is that if these caterpillar are raised being fed something that doesn’t contain chlorophyll they are fluorescent blue instead of the green. The green is from their diet including chlorophyll.
November 25th, 2006 at 1:54 pm