Linda Eskin's Personal Site

Linda Eskin

Hornworms in the Flowers!

As I was looking out my office window one early May day in 2004 I spotted a green worm on the fence... 30 feet away! This had to be good. So I grabbed my camera and ran out to see it. Turns out it was a very large hornworm - not really a worm at all, but the caterpiller of the Sphynx moth, which we have in abundance here. There were about 5-6 of them on the plant. They are related to tomato worms and tobacco hornworms. I need to identify the plant, but it's not a tomato plant, nor tobacco.

Here are two of them, munching away. This plant is a "volunteer", so I'm letting the worms have it. They only seem interested in this one kind of plant.

They are huge, and very healthy-looking. (I have big hands.) No sign of wasp parasitisation.

They have different colors and patterns from those on tomato worms. No white stripes, and the skin is a little shinier.

Here's a good side view of one. It's actually head-down on a vertical stem - the lines
behind it are the fence boards. The markings varied a little between them, but this
one is a pretty good example. By the way, they glow under a black light. Handy if you
want to pick them off your plants at night.

Here's the one I originally spotted on the fence. I did not measure it, but I'm guessing 4-5".

Same one, crawling down the fence.

A head-on view. I scared it, so its head is tucked down, in a defensive posture.

This is the underside of the same one shown above. I don't know what the "feet" really
are - I think the only real "feet" are the ones in front. Whatever they are, they do a good
job of clinging to plants.

They seem to prefer the tender new growth at the ends of the stems.

Pretty things, if you don't mind them eating your plants.

They eat like we would eat corn on the cob, except vertically - they munch down a strip of leaf, then start again at the top.