Caterpillars Eating

During a slow time in the Butterfly House last week, I made short videos of two caterpillars eating.

The first was a tobacco hornworm (Manduca sexta) on a tomato plant. The ‘horn’ is on the rear of the caterpillar…and looks a lot like a thorn or prickle! The caterpillar was diligently eating a tomato. Afterwards is started on a leaf rather than another tomato. I remember my grandmother picking the caterpillars off her tomato plants.

The second was a cecropia moth (Hyalophora cecropia) caterpillar – one of the ones I raises with my luna caterpillars. It was still eating sweet gum leaves! It is not an instar 4 – one more shedding of the skin and eating a lot before ready to make a cocoon to go through the winter!