#tobacco hornworm

[onenicebugperday]

do you have anything neat to share about tobacco hornworms? I got kinda mad at the ones that ate a bunch of my tomato plants' foliage.

They can certainly be destructive! But that's because caterpillars are designed to be eating machines. Gotta get very fat and happy before pupating into adults.

Tobacco hornworms have a special place in my heart since I raised several generations from egg to moth.

Tobacco hornworms are the larval stage of the Carolina sphinx moth, which is relatively large and very pretty!

Lorge. Photos by cassie169, nanofishology, and muir

They remind me a lot of death's head moths, which are some of my favorite species, and which tragically are not available to raise in the US.

In typical sphinx fashion, they feed from flowers and look like hummingbirds when flying, though this species is nocturnal so you likely won't see them flying around in the daytime.

Photo by kim_fleming

In the wild the caterpillars are green because of the yellow plant pigments they eat, but when you raise them in captivity on an artificial diet, they are bright blue, which is EXCELLENT.

Photos by sambiology and via bigappleherp

The caterpillars can make cute clicking noises to scare away predators. Adults can squeak! Or squirt you with a defensive fluid.

Idk if anyone else will think this is cute but their poop looks like little grenades:

Photo via southeasternoutdoors

Once the caterpillars are fat and happy enough, they burrow into the ground to pupate.

They may be destructive in gardens, but captive raised caterpillars are used in biomedical science labs for a whole bunch of different things (including neurobiology!) and of course they are hugely popular in the reptile pet trade as feeders.

Also.......they are precious and I love them :')

#rugessnome #the more you know #insects #bugs #moth #sphinx moth #carolina sphinx #tobacco hornworm #caterpillar #larva #hornworm

[punkgardener]

@thethingything hey here's the upclose picture of the apparent tobacco horn worms, tell me what you think

He's kinda crunched so if you need another picture let me know, beautiful eye spots though 😍

#bugs #tomato horn worm #tobacco hornworm #insect id #insect identification #insectblr

[monstera-tea]

Tobacco hornworm buddy I found at work :>

#bug #caterpillar #photography #green #tomatoes #farm #urban roots #tobacco hornworm #hornworm #moth #nature

[zombeaversrule]

#hornworms #tobacco hornworm #moths #sphinx moth #moth pupa #pupae

[bugswithcasey]

💚🐛Tobacco horned worms 🐛 💚

I’ve had these guys for five days now!! There starting to get big!!

#bugblr #catipillar #mothraising #moths #tobacco hornworm #horned worms #hornworm #bug collector #i love bugs #bug raising #bugs #wormblr #worms #worm

[jenfoundabug]

Chonk with banana for scale

(Manduca sexta larvae almost ready to pupate)

#manduca sexta #carolina sphinx #tobacco hornworm #bugs #caterpillar #larvae #nature #animals #arthropods #entomology #insect appreciation #insects #I know they’re agricultural pests #they’re also pollinators #and native species #moths #lepidoptera #hornworm #heckin chonker #chonk #oh lawd #fatty #beefcakes #banana #child #bugblr #absolute unit

[ne0n-n1ghtm4res]

Hello bugblr!!! Last post I made related to bugs was my entomology journal. Well I have super exciting news!!!

So, this is nubbins:

I bought him for 2 dollars from the "live lizard food" section at the pet store. Obviously I am not feeding him to any lizard.

He is a tobacco hornworm, or Manduca Sexta

He buried himself a few days ago, and this morning I woke up to this!

I changed his container and I put some dirt in there, it's damp with cold water. He should emerge in about 2 weeks!! I'm very excited. After that he'll live for about 2-3 weeks. I plan on taking care of him until he dies, and at that point I'll pin him.

I'm actually not sure if he’s actually a he right now, but I'll know once he emerges. Hopefully he is because I absolutely love the big fluffy antennae.

Anyways, that's all! Thought I would share, I'm super super excited about this!!! It's my first time raising any arthropod from the larval stage, I hope I'm doing everything right- I have done quite a bit of research for this. If he dies before he fully emerges I'll definitely be upset, but at least it will be a learning experience- after all, I can always get another 2 dollar caterpillar.

#entomology #moth #tobacco hornworm #manduca sexta #caterpillar #pupa #bugs tw #bugblr #bugs #moths #insects #insectblr #pets

[antletic]

tobacco hornworm larvae. if you google this guy youll see that all the pictures are green. this is because while the most common colour of insect blood is clear, these guys have blue blood. when feeding on leaves, they produce a yellow colour, blue + yellow = green. however this is a lab grown colony of hormworm, meaning theyre fed an artificial diet (not leaves), resulting in them looking blue!

these pictures are old (going thru the months worth of bug images i wanted to share lol), so i will pop in on the colony now as they are being fed a plant i believe. youll be able to see them kind of turning green

#tobacco hornworm #lepidoptera

[bugsonthefarm]

Tobacco hornworm (Manduca sexta) (Hawkmoth/Sphynx Moth)

Sept 8 2022

Have I mentioned I love these guys? Seriously I adore them. I try to raise a caterpillar every year, and this is 2022′s lovely female adult! 

Native

#lepidoptera #tobacco hornworm #moth #native #my coworker collected a whole bucket of these guys #and we were staring at them like TV at lunch #I picked the smallest one out of the bucket to raise

[stickbvg]

bug 166

#daily bug #practice project #bug #photo #irl bugs #caterpillar #tobacco hornworm #hornworm caterpillar #carolina sphinx moth #larvae #my zoo

[onenicebugperday]

@izunafox53 submitted: I raise caterpillars in my spare time. I have tobacco hornworms and one sphinx moth caterpillar. The hornworms are named Beans, Rice, and Toast and the sphinx is Sausage. They'll be moths soon! :)

I love them all! Sausage is a very appropriate name. Look at how delightfully fat they are :)

Btw - "sphinx moth" is just the common name for any species in the family Sphingidae. Sausage looks like a pandorus sphinx as far as I can tell from what little I can see of their markings and their silly hood. Pandorus sphinxes also don't have a horn on their butt like most sphinxes do!

#animals #insects #bugs #submission #moth #sphinx moth #carolina sphinx #tobacco hornworm #pandorus sphinx #caterpillar #larva

[teatimewithtacofox]

Look at hims face! 🥰 Life is better with chonky monchers.

#Buddy #caterpillar #carolina sphinx moth #tobacco hornworm #manduca sexta #entomology #lepidoptera #insect pets #moth #pets #cute #bugblr #bugs

[orbette]

#orbette #caterpillar #tobacco hornworm

[punkgardener]

One hornworm has gone underground. I can't wait to see when he comes back up

#tobacco hornworm #bugblr #this is detrimental to my garden but i must do it

[bugswithcasey]

Hello bug lovers of tumbler! Today I’m going to show you step by step how to set up a enclosure for raising tobacco horned worms! (Also knows as tomato horned worms)

First things first get yourself some kind of container , this can be a tank large Tupperware container, rubber made totes and other things like that.

For me I’m going to be using this 15 ish gallon tank;

2)

Now I'm going to add a line or damp paper towels

3)

Add your soil! a lot of the times when people raise horned worms as food they will just stop at the towels, however tobacco horned worms like to burrow in the dirt especially when cocooning!

The dirt can be from outside or purchased, just make sure if you are getting your dirt from outside there are no other bugs in the soil, I also tried to get as many of the roots and such out when getting outside soil.

4)

sticks!

They love to climb! So I like to add in some sticks so that they can climb to there little hearts content! I also tape this plastic mesh thing to the side of the tank as another thing for them to climb, you can find these in basically any crafting isle.

5)

Now of cores, food!! Tomato's, potatoes, broccoli, plant stems, lettuce, these guys eat almost any kind of plant!!

6)

This is mostly optional but I like to put a light above mine, warmth and it makes them easy see!!

7)

Add your worms!! This is my favorite part!!

Then boom! you have yourself a nice enclosure to raise some Hawk Moths in! Good luck on bug raising you're Horned worms everyone!!

Remember to do you're own research before jumping into moth raising!!!!

#bugblr #bugs #moths #mothraising #bug raising #catipillar #horned worms #hawk moth #how to #tobacco hornworm #i love bugs #bug collection #bug collector

[jenfoundabug]

I found a tobacco hornworm on my tomatoes this week. Lucky for it, I have a junky tomato volunteer plant that’s not producing. So I relocated it, and now I have a new pet lol.

This species gets super chonky so unless something eats it, I’ll have more pictures in the coming weeks. The adults are also quite large and beautiful, and they’re native pollinators, yay.

Manduca sexta, aka Carolina sphinx moth

#future chonk #tobacco hornworm #manduca sexta #Carolina sphinx #sphinx moth #caterpillar #larva #lepidoptera #moth #nature #bugs #nature photography #biodiversity #animals #inaturalist #arthropods #entomology #insect appreciation #insects #hornworm #tomatoes #bugblr #unconventional pets #pollinators #garden pests