Please ID this caterpillar

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kbreeze Mastic, NY Aug 18, 2015

We found this on our tomato plant.

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1lisac Liberty Hill, TX(Zone 8a) Aug 18, 2015

That is a tomato worm. A parasitic wasp has layed eggs on it (the pods). When they hatch they will feed on the cat, which will kill it, but save your plants from further distruction.

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kbreeze Mastic, NY Aug 18, 2015

Wow, that's a strange situation! Thanks so much for your response.

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1lisac Liberty Hill, TX(Zone 8a) Aug 18, 2015

That's the same response that I had when I learned abt this right here on DG. Lol Since then I leave the wasps alone (if at all possible) and I don't see many tomato worms anymore either.

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Flapdoodle Minot, ND Aug 18, 2015

The 'pods' actually are cocoons spun by the wasp larvae after the bore their way out of the caterpillar's body. The female wasp ( a braconid) inserts her eggs into the caterpillars body. The eggs of such parasitic wasps often undergo a process called polyembryony, during which as many as 3000 larvae can develop from a single fertilized egg - http://entnemdept.ifas.ufl.edu/walker/ufbir/chapters/chapter_26.shtml

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1lisac Liberty Hill, TX(Zone 8a) Aug 18, 2015

Wow, thank you so much! I've never seen that explanation. That is a lot of larvae.

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