A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife
Project Noah Nature School
Manduca sexta
Found in our garden eating our tomato plants!
Raising them is really easy to do. Just keep cutting plant material as needed and place the cutting into a container with a small amount of water in the bottom to help keep it fresh. I find that a light misting of water daily gives extra moisture for drinking and overall humidity. I am raising a cecropia moth caterpillar now and just use a small bottle to hold the host plant. What you use will depend on your container size.
When it's done eating and growing, it will wander off the plant material and make its cocoon on the container floor. You might add a bit of leaves on the bottom and continue the occasional fine mist (but not too wet!) during the pupation process. The length of time it needs to transform into a moth will depend on temperature. It's definitely warmer outside than inside your home, but that's ok. Just pick a location that doesn't get blasted with sunshine through a window and it will happen in due time. Have fun with it!
@Jolly, No worms were harmed in the taking of this photo! My husband used the knife to cut the leaf off of the plant so we could get a picture! He really wants to raise it in our daughter's butterfly cage and watch it transform into a moth. I don't know how you'd feed and water it though!
Yes, but the other one is not s Swiss knife! Victorinox sp. for sure, would need an open blade shot for getting down to species...
Yet another wild knife spotting...
http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/114...
Senora you must keep second page at front as it is shown more close and neat look of this caterpillar.
Basing my ID on pages 248 and 249 of Wagner's Caterpillars of Eastern North America. See also bugguide
Page for M.q.- http://bugguide.net/node/view/5011
Page for M.s.- http://bugguide.net/node/view/3244
Manduca sexta is also called Carolina Sphinx
YTobacco Hornworm, Manduca sexta. Manduca quinquemaculata has a thick white stripe running down the entire body just under the spiracles ( black little dots )
Please read my suggested id, this looks to be your moth, it is often found on tomato plants.
I suspect this caterpillar is a type of sphinx moth caterpillar, the exact type I am unsure of.
Spotted on Jun 29, 2012
Submitted on Jun 30, 2012
