Wednesday, October 20, 2010

hornworms!

We had a major invasion by these interesting little critters. Though they have been voraciously chomping on the leaves of the tomato plants, these insects are technically called Tobacco hornworms (Manduca sexta). They are distinguished from their Tomato hornworm cousins by their seven diagonal stripes. Interestingly, these aren't technically worms; these insects are leaf-munching caterpillars of a moth that feeds on plant nectar.



Here's one hanging upside down along a tomato branch. Notice the seven stripes and the tiny dots at the top of the stripes. These dots are "spiracles" - little breathing holes for respiration. 



 Here is a branch of one of our tomato plants. It has been stripped almost completely clean by the little buggers.


 This little caterpillar is hanging upside down, probably pondering what to eat next. Notice the horn on the upper right.

 This is the feces of these tobacco hornworm. A few times I've been looking for the little caterpillar, but only seen chewed leaves and these characteristically shaped poops.

This one is grasping a leaf by its thoracic legs and chewing away. When you look carefully in real life, you can see the mouthparts are arranged vertically to allow for easier leaf-munching. 


More poop.

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