Today, thanks to @NGKids I learned it’s National Moth Week. This would have been nice to know before last night when the New Orleans delegation of the tabacco hornworms held a banquet on my pepper plants leaving them as naked as stick figures.
Tobacco hornworm caterpillars on a habanero pepper plant.
Tobacco hornworm caterpillars are often confused with tomato hornworm caterpillars because both species feed on the leaves of plants in the family Solanacae like peppers, tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, and tobacco.
Basic ID
Tomato hornworm: caterpillar has 8 v-shaped markings and black horns.
Tobacco hornworm: caterpillar has 7 diagonal lines and red horns.
So I identified the main culprits that destroyed my peppers while partying to celebrate National Moth Week. But who is their little brown accomplice?
Do you know?
Can you identify the other caterpillar in this photo?
