[CH] Miss Dewi's pepper hornworm
Love2Troll (Love2Troll@kc.rr.com)
Sat, 29 Sep 2001 14:40:12 -0500
>Miss Dewi
>CH#2192
> http://www.chilechick.tmfweb.nl
Miss Dewi,
First off, very much enjoyed your website. (Note: I could not load your wav file. http://www.chilechick.tmfweb.nl/wav/dewiwav.wav Perhaps the site was busy? Which media player do you recommend?) Was surprised to see your hornworm picture. Not sure what type of hornworm it is either. Last year I captured a tomato hornworm and "raised" it. Named it Grenade Launcher after the trail that he left behind. (frass) See the pupal stage here: http://www.fototime.com/9E2B0D2B78AB484/orig.jpg This year I found a couple of tobacco hornworms and have one that has buried itself in the dirt in my aquarium (now terrarium) and is in the pupal stage. Both of these hornworm types readily eat pepper plants and fruit. See the last instar of larval stage of the tobacco hornworm here: http://www.fototime.com/4334CE90B1F6FEE/orig.jpg
Your son might really enjoy watching the life cycle of these amazing creatures. They emerge as beautiful moths that are often mistaken for hummingbirds. I can provide fairly good instructions for doing so if anyone is interested.
The hornworm that you have depicted appears to be within hours of the pupal stage due to the brown coloration. It was probably looking for some dirt to burrow in to continue its life cycle. But, I'm not sure.... this worm is somewhat different than any that I've seen.
Is it OK if I use your picture to try and ID it? I'll put your name on it to give you credit for the pic. What a cool find!
John
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