Observation date: August 07, 2013
Submitted by: queitschea
Specimen type: Photograph
Observation notes: I came home from work around 6PM and my wife was insistent that I see this "thing" outside. I found this rather frightening looking and rather large caterpillar on about the third level down of my largest tomato plant. All the levels above where we found this guy were devoured completely. Near as we can tell, this was over the course of a few hours time. I snapped these and a few other pictures of the little guy, frightened my wife and amazed my 3 yr old and 5 yr old then we moved him to a tree at the back of the lot to keep him from devouring my entire garden. I then set out to identify him and was able to positively identify him as a "Tobacco Hornworm" which can grow as large as a small hummingbird. I understand that they eat 100x their body weight in a day and multiply their size by 1000's in a matter of days which certainly seems plausible given the damage that this guy caused in a few hours.
Host Plant: Tomato Plant
Other Plants in the area: Green Peppers, Giant Sunflowers, Cucumbers, Green Beans, Lettuce, Mint, Rosemary
The day was a rainy, overcast, cooler summer day.
Status: Resident
Verified by: rogerdowner
Verified date: August 08, 2013
Coordinator notes: None.
