Ok, i was working in my gardens removing some of my spent tomato plants, when i found THIS!
This looked to me like the very hungry caterpillar on steroids!!!
This thing is BIG! And do you see those little rice like things clinging to it's back? It's larvae? Maggots?! Whatever they were they were wiggling and jiggling on that caterpillar's back.
And i'm not even sure that this end that's up is the head! It may be the backside?
As a matter of fact i think it IS the backside! Maybe another caterpillar could tell for sure, but i think it is pretty interesting that i can't tell it's head from it's hind end! Truly a face...or butt...only another caterpillar could love...
6 comments:
Gracious! That's a monster of a caterpillar. Of course you know that Stella would find it 'beautiful' and make it her "best friend ever!"
Hahahaha I am sure you are right! Lola would have wanted to "pet" it! I did pick it up off the ground after it fell off the twig i found it on and put it over the fence so the dogs wouldn't trample it. I thought it looked pretty scary, but i'm willing to bet another caterpillar loved it!
Good grief- that is IS huge!!
Yep! S/he's a big one! I was in the hardware store with my daughter last week and picked up a magazine with a picture of this bug in it. No name tho...The man who rang me out told me he didn't know what it was called but they are partial to tomato plants. At least she had a full tummy before i tossed her over the fence.
Those white things are egg sacks for a wasp larvae. There is a particular parasitic wasp that lays its eggs on hornworms, and then the larvae eat the insides of the hornworm and kill it, making a new generation of those wasps to infect any other hornworms you have. If I see one with the egg cases, I leave it alone. If I see one without, I feed it to the chickens!!
Hi Claire! How are you? It's a hornworm then huh? I know i found out you do NOT want these critters munching on the tomato plants! But i do kinda feel sorry for the whole process....The larvae eating the worm, the chickens eating the worm, the worm eating my tomato plants...I wouldn't make a very brave farmer, would i....
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