Good job Rob and Don. My wife spotted this Tobacco Hornworm (Manduca sexta) in our tomato plants the other day. (tobacco and tomato hornworms feed on plants in the nightshade family such as tomatoes and tobacco and possibly the unique hybrid developed by Homer Simpson "Tomacco")
The wife ran in excitedly and told me to grab my camera. She asked about the white things all over its body and wondered if they were eggs. I knew immediately that they were not eggs but the pupae of (yes Rob) wasps in the family Broconidae that are just about ready to emerge. The wasps lay their eggs on hornworms and the larvae then parasitize the wasp and literally eat it from the inside out. They then emerge and pupate on the outside. The hornworm is pretty much dead already and hadn't moved for several days (although when I poked it with a stick it twitched. My wife felt bad for the caterpillar but was excited to see a natural biological control protecting our tomatoes. I searched the rest of the tomatoes but found no more hornworms. Wasps 1 Hornworms 0 -- Christian [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sometimes my background in biology comes in handy.
