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Tobacco Hornworm
Manduca sexta
39.9081, -85.9228
Field Notes
Description:
The tobacco hornworm is a translucent spring-green caterpillar with seven diagonal white stripes along its sides and a reddish "horn" at the posterior. In adult form it is known as the Carolina sphinx moth. The tobacco hornworm is often confused with the similar-looking tomato hornworm (Manduca quinquemaculata), which has eight V-shaped makings on its sides and a black "horn" at the posterior. The parasitic Braconid wasp (Cotesia congregatus), which in its larval form feeds on hornworms and other garden pests, ultimately weakens and kills the host. When the wasps pupate, they spin tiny white cocoons along the back and sides of the hornworm that look like eggs.
Habitat:
The tobacco hornworm can be found in the United States from the Southern Gulf Coast states north to New York and across the Midwest, and as far south as Argentina in Central and South America.
Notes:
These caterpillars appear on my tomato plants every summer despite my best efforts to prevent them. I try to control them by plucking them off my plants and putting them in a jar of tomato leaves with a lid of wire mesh, so the beneficial, parasitoid Braconid wasps can escape when they hatch to infest more hornworms and other garden pests.
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