white box picture of tobacco hornworm

[ecooper]

Today I posted a few white box pictures of tobacco hornworms (Manduca sexta) on my blog. Apparently this species ranges into British Columbia, but I’ve never found one. And there certainly wouldn’t be any available in the wild locally at this time of year. I bought these specimens in a local per shop. I was there to pick up some crickets (mantid and scorpion food) and saw that they had some of these caterpillars for sale. Needless to say, I purchased some to play with.

These are fun critters, not that they do much—they are really just big fat eating machines. Hopefully they will thrive and pupate…eventually providing me with some adult tobacco hornworm moths to photograph.

Cheers,
EC
www.macrocritters.wordpress.com
hornworm whitebox copyright Ernie Cooper 2012_filtered by ernie.cooper, on Flickr

 

[Arienette]

we raise about 200 of these a year for our entomology class. they have a special goopy diet food you can purchase for them as well.

when you start to see the dark little heart beating along the back of the 'pillar, its time to prepare to pupate, put them in a container with dry paper towels and they will bury themselves in and pupate in a few days. dont change the paper if it gets wet, and they dont need any food in there either. The moth that comes out is commonly called a hummingbird moth, theyre really pretty, and i dont know about your area but we legally have to kill them because theyre considered "invasive"

 

[Travis K]

we raise about 200 of these a year for our entomology class. they have a special goopy diet food you can purchase for them as well.

when you start to see the dark little heart beating along the back of the 'pillar, its time to prepare to pupate, put them in a container with dry paper towels and they will bury themselves in and pupate in a few days. dont change the paper if it gets wet, and they dont need any food in there either. The moth that comes out is commonly called a hummingbird moth, theyre really pretty, and i dont know about your area but we legally have to kill them because theyre considered "invasive"

If you are referring to Hyles lineata (White-lined sphinx moth), they are common in our area and I see them every year in my flower garden around sundown in late summer. The larva also look just like ecooper's above which imo may not actually be lineata but a different species in that genus. Anyway, we have a native species you might be interested in switching to.

 

[Arienette]

If you are referring to Hyles lineata (White-lined sphinx moth), they are common in our area and I see them every year in my flower garden around sundown in late summer. The larva also look just like ecooper's above which imo may not actually be lineata but a different species in that genus. Anyway, we have a native species you might be interested in switching to.

those are, i believe, tomato hornworms, which we do have around here, and are very similar to the moths that im talking about. we get ours from a biological supply company, and theyre tobacco horn worms. like i said, we have a special diety goop thats made just for tobacco horns.

just checked my last order form, theyre Manduca sexta, which is the Carolina sphinx moth, and we feed them this :
http://www.carolina.com/hornworm/re...7&mCat=10476&sCat=10568&ssCat=10596&question=

 

[bugmankeith]

If you can feed them tomato and nightshade leaves, they also love to eat sliced tomato with artificial diet and you'll see there blue color change to green over a few days. When they start to wander around and you see the dark line along the back easily they need soil to pupate in and sometimes they get a yellow tint and shorter. I use a critter keeper and put organic potting soil in. Takes almost a week for pupa to form and harden.

 

[Deroplatys]

Stunning photo

 

[ecooper]

we raise about 200 of these a year for our entomology class. they have a special goopy diet food you can purchase for them as well.

when you start to see the dark little heart beating along the back of the 'pillar, its time to prepare to pupate, put them in a container with dry paper towels and they will bury themselves in and pupate in a few days. dont change the paper if it gets wet, and they dont need any food in there either. The moth that comes out is commonly called a hummingbird moth, theyre really pretty, and i dont know about your area but we legally have to kill them because theyre considered "invasive"

Thanks for the tip about the paper towels! One of the caterpillars is (hopefully) pupating now. It will be very interesting to see the moth. I think I might need to get a few more and see if I could breed and rear an entire generation. It'd be nice to photograph the entire life cycle. Apparently they range into my part of the world (not that I have ever seen one) so there are no rstrictions on keeping/breeding them.

Cheers,
EC

---------- Post added 11-14-2012 at 04:44 PM ----------

those are, i believe, tomato hornworms, which we do have around here, and are very similar to the moths that im talking about. we get ours from a biological supply company, and theyre tobacco horn worms. like i said, we have a special diety goop thats made just for tobacco horns.

just checked my last order form, theyre Manduca sexta, which is the Carolina sphinx moth, and we feed them this :
http://www.carolina.com/hornworm/re...7&mCat=10476&sCat=10568&ssCat=10596&question=

Thanks for this tip too...I was wondering where to get the prepared food...

EC

---------- Post added 11-14-2012 at 04:46 PM ----------

If you can feed them tomato and nightshade leaves, they also love to eat sliced tomato with artificial diet and you'll see there blue color change to green over a few days. When they start to wander around and you see the dark line along the back easily they need soil to pupate in and sometimes they get a yellow tint and shorter. I use a critter keeper and put organic potting soil in. Takes almost a week for pupa to form and harden.

Thanks for this...I appreciate all the tips!

EC

---------- Post added 11-14-2012 at 04:47 PM ----------

Stunning photo

Thanks!

EC