Species Manduca sexta - Carolina Sphinx - Hodges#7775

7775

Tobacco Hornworm (caterpillar)

SEXTA: meaning six; there are six orangish-yellow spots on each side of the abdomen in adults.

Wingspan 90-120 mm

Larva to 81 mm

Adult: Large. Forewing gray with indistinct black lines and brown shading; usually has six pairs of yellow spots on abdomen.

Hindwing small, banded black and white, with two black zigzag median lines very close together

Larva: large green body; dorsal "horn" (usually curved and orange, pink or red) on terminal abdominal segment; up to seven oblique whitish lateral lines, edged with black on upper borders. The similar Tomato Hornworm, Maduca quinquemaculata, has eight v-shaped stripes and a straight blue-black horn. These caterpillars are often confused and misidentified.

Florida to Massachusetts, west through southern Ontario, Michigan, and Minnesota to Colorado and California. Ranges south through Mexico, West Indies, neotropics to Argentina.

Varied, including fields, agricultural lands.

adults May-October

Larvae feed on leaves of potato, tomato, tobacco (Nightshade family--Solanaceae).

Adults take nectar from deep-throated flowers, such as Japanese honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica), moonflower (Calonyction aculeata), and petunia (Petunia hybrida).

Several generations per year in the southern states; two generations per year farther north; larval development averages twenty days.

Can be a pest of crops.