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Tobacco Hornworm

Manduca sexta sexta

Photo by SG in CR
Published on Project Noah
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11.001, -85.2766

Field Notes

Description:

Large green caterpillar with 7 diagonal white stripes on each side.

Habitat:

Tomato plants in a vegetable garden.

Notes:

Whenever I plant tomatoes these will inevitably show up. They have a preference for normal tomato plants over cherry tomato plants. I thought these might be the larvae of M. rustica, as I've seen adults here many a time. But all the images I've seen online show the caterpillars of M. rustica have a spiky/granular texture to the "tail", which these don't.

Reference Links:

Tobacco Hornworm (Manduca sexta) - Information on Tobacco Hornworm, Manduca sexta, Manduca sexta sexta

Species ID Suggestions

Tobacco Hornworm or Carolina Sphinx Caterpillar

Manduca sexta

Reference Link
bayucca
2

Comments (1)
bayucca
Sphingidae, Sphinginae, Sphingini, Manduca sexta. http://bugguide.net/node/view/424383 http://bugguide.net/node/view/787842 http://bugguide.net/node/view/810975/bgimage http://bugguide.net/node/view/3244/bgimage

Spotted for Missions

Mission
Insects of Costa Rica
Mission
Life in Costa Rica

Tags

Photographed
PublishedJuly 27, 2014

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