Manduca quinquemaculata. I have never seen the moth at my home, where the tomato plants get destroyed. This was a couple of hours drive away, at dusk. I thought it was really pretty so I let it pollinate my friends’ flowers unmolested. Now that I know it’s identity, I want to go back in time and make it explode with a tennis racket.
This is a Five-Spotted Hawk Moth, the Adult Form of the Dreaded Tomato Hornworm Caterpillar
byu/nostigmatahere intomatoes
by nostigmatahere
14 Comments
Can you imagine the ding you could get off that thing going yard with an aluminum bat? Tennis racket be damned! I’m swingin for the fences.
So awesome! Those guys are so fast, they are hard to get a good video of them! Nice camera work.
I mean, it’s beautiful but frighteningly big. Doesn’t make me like the caterpillar version any more.
them things are beastly and it’s weird i never seen em in my backyard until i planted tomatoes
A moth that thinks it’s a bird that thinks it’s a bee.
That is magnificent…thanks for sharing.
My cats love eating these when they make their way inside the house
Well, that was interesting.
Your tomatoes might end up shit but you have beautiful bugs and cleome !
Well now I might just grow sacrificial tomatoes for them 🥺
They’re excellent pollinators and it’s fucking weird to obsess over killing them.
It’s pollinating. So it’s good for something.
They remind me a lot of squash vine borer moths…
Beautiful 🍅🍴🦋