Yuck
Last year, we released some beneficials--insects that control the unsavory and destructive pest populations. Yesterday, I found a gruesome sight. Despite how cute this chubby tobacco hornworm looks now, they feed on the Solanum family in the garden (tomato, potatoes, etc). To identify the hornworms, you'll look for seven diagonal marks with tiny 'eyes' along the length of their bodies, and a bright red hooked tail on their bum. The angle doesn't show you the red, but trust me, it's there.
Anyway, so tomato hornworms--their kissing cousins--are almost identical but have eight v-shaped marks on their bodies with a straighter black horn on their tushes. This unfortunate lil' guy has become host to a braconid wasp. See all those little fuzzy egg shaped things? Those are essentially cocoons left by the parasitic host on the live bodies of these worms. The wasp babies will emerge from there...after they've made a...ah, snack of Mr. Hornworm. Needless to say, this hornworm's death won't be an easy one. Photographed mostly for the new horticulture students and arboretum blog.
It's not that easy being green. --Kermit the Frog
Anyway, so tomato hornworms--their kissing cousins--are almost identical but have eight v-shaped marks on their bodies with a straighter black horn on their tushes. This unfortunate lil' guy has become host to a braconid wasp. See all those little fuzzy egg shaped things? Those are essentially cocoons left by the parasitic host on the live bodies of these worms. The wasp babies will emerge from there...after they've made a...ah, snack of Mr. Hornworm. Needless to say, this hornworm's death won't be an easy one. Photographed mostly for the new horticulture students and arboretum blog.
It's not that easy being green. --Kermit the Frog
