Later, entire leaves and stems are eaten, leaving only stubs. Be alert for light feeding at plant tops.Green larval color is an effective camouflage, making the caterpillars difficult to detect.Hornworms may attack green fruit, and feeding in ripe tomatoes makes large gouges (especially during dry weather).Damage is usually unnoticed until the final caterpillar instar, when 90% of defoliation occurs.

Caterpillars usually consume entire leaves, rather than chewing holes in them, and can rapidly defoliate plants.

Caterpillar feeding ordinarily begins at the top of the plant.

Solanaceous plants: particularly tomato less commonly on eggplant, pepper, potato.

Mature larvae drop to the ground and burrow up to 6' deep into the soil to form pupal case.

There are 4-5 instars (growth stages) over about one month.

Larvae feed voraciously on leaves and sometimes fruit.The horns of newly hatched larvae are nearly the same length as the body, but become proportionately smaller as larvae mature.Eggs are laid singly on leaf underside, rarely on top.Moths are most active at sunset and again just before dawn, feeding on nectar from flowers.Adult moths emerge over a long period beginning in May and extending as late as early August.Overwinter in pupal cases 4-6” deep in the soil.Abdomen has 5 orange-yellow spots (6 in tobacco hornworm). Front wings are much longer than back wings, which have dark and white uneven bands.

Adult: Large, gray-brown hawk moth with a wingspan of 4-5'.Pupae: Large, elongate-oval, hard, reddish-brown case about 2' long, pointed at posterior end, with a distinctive loop attached anteriorly and extending ¼ to 1/3 the body length.Fully grown caterpillar may reach 3-4' inches in length.). Along each side there are 7-8 white, side-ways Vs pointing towards the head (tobacco hornworms have 7 diagonal white stripes along the side). Larvae: Large, cylindrical caterpillar with a black “horn” located dorsally on last abdominal segment (tobacco hornworms have a red 'horn'). First of 5 instars (growth stages) is yellow-white others are green dark brown or blackish forms can occur.Eggs: Smooth, round (resemble small pearls), vary in color from yellow/light green to white, hundreds laid singly on undersides of leaves.

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