Hornworms (Manduca sexta) are an excellent feeder for bearded dragons, leopard geckos, chameleons, and various other reptiles and pets. However, though both species feed frequently on tomato, the tomato hornworm is encountered by Maine homeowners far less often than is the tobacco hornworm, which can be readily identified by seven straight, white lines on its body and a red horn compared to “ V“-shaped white markings and a black horn found on the tomato hornworm.Fluker's Feeder Insect Care Tutorials (YouTube)

It is pale green in color ( sometimes brown), and is a master of camouflage, allowing it to go largely unnoticed by human eyes until it is full size or close to full size (roughly three to four inches long).Īnother hornworm that is similar enough to the tobacco hornworm to cause a lot of people to confuse the two–and which shares many of the same host plants–is the tomato hornworm, Manduca quinquemaculata (pictured above beside a tobacco hornworm). It feeds on the leaves and stems of primarily tomato in our part of the country but there are additional plants from the Solanaceae family that it will eat as well, such as eggplant, pepper, potato, and, of course, in the southern US, tobacco, for which it is named and for which it is very economically significant. The caterpillars are so-named for the prominent horny spike that protrudes up from the end of the abdomen, and the hornworm caterpillar most likely to be seen in the home garden in Maine is the tobacco hornworm, Manduca sexta. Hornworms are the caterpillars of a family of moths called sphinx moths or hawk moths (Sphingidae).

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