can U ID caterpillar?

[goldenrose]

Yesterday I got to see a cycada emerging from it's coccoon, this morning found this on a tomato plant. Can anyone ID it?

 

[Sirius]

That's a tomato or tobacco hornworm that has been parasitized by wasp larvae. I would remove it from my tomato plants if I were you. They like to eat them. Or just let the wasp larvae finish it off. Circle of life and all that.

The caterpillar...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manduca_quinquemaculata
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manduca_sexta

The wasp...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braconidae

 

[Paphman910]

Looks like wasp eggs attached to tomato hornworm!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAwd_KgCXcM

Paphman910

 

[nikv]

Those hornworms can devastate a tomato plant in short order. I'd get rid of it before the wasp larvae do their thing.

 

[eggshells]

It is basically being eaten alive?

 

[Justin]

agree, that bugger can eat your whole plant in a matter of hours.

 

[NYEric]

put it in a jar with a few leaves as a science project for some young person.

 

[cnycharles]

It is basically being eaten alive?

yes, as will the tomato plant if the caterpillar stays on it!

 

[Hera]

Poor caterpillar! What a way to go.

 

[Lanmark]

Poor tomato plant too!

 

[W. Beetus]

I had some of those on my tomatoes one year, and as people have said, they really eat! I had so many tomatoes that I just let them eat.

 

[SlipperFan]

These grow into large Sphinx moths:
http://survivalfarm.wordpress.com/2...n-worm-now-what-do-i-do/tomato-hornworm-moth/
http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/insect/05517.html

 

[likespaphs]

put it in a jar with a few leaves as a science project for some young person.

it's also a good way to help with the parasitoid (like a parasite but parasites don't kill their hosts, parasitoids do) population!

parasitoids are some of my favorite good bugs!

 

[Lanmark]

These grow into large Sphinx moths:
http://survivalfarm.wordpress.com/2...n-worm-now-what-do-i-do/tomato-hornworm-moth/
http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/insect/05517.html

Cool!

 

[Eric Muehlbauer]

I'd remove it from my plants, but not kill it. Let the wasps do their thing so that there are more of them to nail the other hornworms.

 

[bullsie]

We set one tomato plant apart from all the others. Keeping track every early morning for signs of the worms, once found we gather them all up and place them on the seperated tomato plant. Everyone is happy then! The tomato worms have their meal, the parasites have their meal, and some worms go undetected. And we get tomatoes. It is worth doing.

 

[Shiva]

Poor caterpillar! What a way to go.

There's no poor caterpillar talk when you find one munching on a cattleya flower you waited years to see. :evil:

 

[fbrem]

let the parasitoids free to ravage more of those green devils. Go parasitoids!!!

 

[goldenrose]

Thanks guys! We have tomatoes every year & I don't remember ever seeing one in the past but they do have good camouflage but not good enough. I saw it first thing in the morning, then the rain came, once it cleared I was taking pics of the paph & thought I should checkout the beastie & the camera was on the tripod! Here's what I found-

 

[Marc]

Wasps and other parasites are the coolest things, allthough with a little bit of fantasy it easily changes into the stuff that horrors are filled with.

Here's a "cool" example of a parasitic worm that affects snails.

[YOUTUBE]EWB_COSUXMw[/YOUTUBE]

And here's a nice example of a wasp that lays it's egs on catarpillars

[YOUTUBE]vMG-LWyNcAs[/YOUTUBE]

Very impressive how one creature can actually affect that behaviour of other creatures.

Stuff of horrors I say!!!!!