Green Caterpillar With Eggs On It's Back (Tomato Hornworm)

My son and I saw this green caterpillar on our porch with eggs on its back. We looked it up and found out it's called a Tomato Hornworm and the eggs are the larvae of wasps....

Tomato hornworm larvae are also parasitized by a number of insects. One of the most common is a small braconid wasp, Cotesia congregatus. Larvae that hatch from wasp eggs laid on the hornworm feed on the inside of the hornworm until the wasp is ready to pupate. The cocoons appear as white projections protruding from the hornworms body (see photo, left). If such projections are observed, the hornworms should be left in the garden to conserve the beneficial parasitoids. The wasps will kill the hornworms when they emerge from the cocoons and will seek out other hornworms to parasitize.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• caterpillar
• worms
• bugs

[wileyk209zback]

It seems the braconid wasps love to kill tomato hornworms, tobacco hornworms and imported cabbageworms (while the hornworms turn into moths, the cabbageworms become butterflies, if they survive and aren't parasitized).