Betsy: Monster Caterpillars
January 26th 2008 Ok, I just have to show you what we found today on our eggplant plants: gi-bleeping-normous caterpillars. They look just like the tobacco/tomato hornworm caterpillars I’ve used for years in my Advanced Ecology course, except on steroids. These are apparently Acherontia atropos, or “Death’s head hawkmoth” larvae, so-named for the skull pattern on the back of the thorax of the adult moth.
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