Baby hornworms!

[radstusky]

I really didn't expect to get baby hornworms, especially since I had 5 adults and only one was female. Also at this point there is only one moth left, and they didn't seem to be drinking the sugar water my daughter put in there for them. This last moth is in a butterfly mesh house with no leaves or anything in there.

Lo and behold this morning as we were heading out the door my daughter noticed some of these little babies so I quickly placed a few of them in a container with a wet piece of foam. They are so teeny as you can see! In this picture also you can see that the hornworm looks a bit pink, that's because the foam I had on hand was red in color and the little guy must have eaten some of it. I have since made them some mulberry chow (since that's all I have to feed them at the moment), and the second pic is where they are on a small piece I made. Hopefully these little guys will grow up, we'll see.

 

[gegeland]

Interesting... I have never seen a baby before, weird.

 

[radstusky]

a couple more baby hornworm pics...

Here are a couple more pics taken with a digital microscope. I think this hornworm just hatched. I don't have a scale here, but to give you an idea, in the second picture, the background looks like blue print, but close up you can see it's really made up of those dots.

These little guys are growing fast, I think the first ones have doubled in size in just one day! They're eating mulberry chow.

 

[laurie]

Those are cool. How did you get them to hatch? I bet it was a lot of work, but hey you did good.

 

[radstusky]

Those are cool. How did you get them to hatch? I bet it was a lot of work, but hey you did good.

Is it normally difficult? I guess I just got lucky. They must be pretty tough, since the ones that ate the foam just passed it right through their gut and still seem to be fine! I think I have somewhere between 30 and 50 of them, so hopefully they'll grow up just fine on the mulberry chow.

 

[Elizadolots]

Wow....those are like.....really weird looking! They sure do earn the "horn worm" name.

Congratulations on the new arrivals!

 

[camshaft]

their horns represent a large portion of their body when they're small like that. In fact, its usually easier to see them because of the horn.

 

[radstusky]

their horns represent a large portion of their body when they're small like that. In fact, its usually easier to see them because of the horn.

Yes the horn definitely helps to spot them, especially on a white background. Also it makes for a nice handle for picking them up with tweezers!