Michelle wrote:

> If I am not mistaken this is the moth that produces the huge 1" x 4" big
> green "tomato horn worm" If you want your tomatoes pruned release
> it in your garden...

I'm by no means an entomologist, but I think you are mistaken. I don't
think the tomato horn "worm" turns into a sphinx moth.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Michelle -

Sorry, but the horn worm IS the sphinx moth's larva. Check out the
Kansas State web page: URL:
www.oznet.ksu.edu/dp_hfrr/extensn/problems/hornworm.htm

"Problem: Tomato Hornworm - Manduca quinquemaculata

"Hosts: Primarily tomato but can also attack eggplant, pepper, and
potato.

"Description: The larval stage of this insect is a 3 1/2 to 4 inch long pale
green caterpillar with white and black markings. There is also a brown
form but it is not as common. One of the last abdominal segments has a
spine-like red or black horn that that gives this insect its' name. The
adult is the Sphinx moth; a grayish-colored insect with a wing spread of
4 to 5 inches.

"The larva is the damaging stage and feeds on the leaves and stems of
the tomato plant and leaving behind dark green or black droppings."

According to WJ Holland in "The Moth Book - A Guide to the Moths
of North America" (Doubleday, Page & Co., 1903), The larvae of the
family Sphingidae ..."are usually large. There is great variety in their
color, though the majority of the North American species are of some
shade of green. They usually have oblique stripes on their sides, and
most of them have a caudal horn, which in the last stages in some
genera is transformed into a lenticular turbercle. In a few genera the
anal horn is wanting. The anterior segments of the larvae are retractile.
When in motion the body is long and fusiform, but when at rest the head
and the anterior segments are drawn back, the rings "telescoping" into
one another, and the anterior portion of the body often raised. It is
alleged that the habit of assuming this posture, suggesting a
resemblance to the Egyptian Sphinx, prompted the application of the
name to these creatures. The larvae are not gregarious, but feed
solitarily upon their appropriate food-plants."

Am I the only birder on Tweeters who has mistaken the larger Sphinx
moths for hummingbirds.....?

Jon. Anderson
Olympia, Washington
festuca at olywa.net