Talk:Manduca sexta

Tobacco/Tomato Hornworms

Im not sure but I think tobacco and tomato hornworms are separate insects, very similar though.

Yes, they are. See [1].Super Rad! 02:50, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

I just found a Tomato Hornworm that is the thickness of my thumb and measures at least 10CM in length. I have seen many tomato hornworms, but nothing like this one.

Hmm, that does sound quite possible. Does anyone have a good source on average/maximum sizes?Alex Weeks 22:36, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

They can easily reach that size in colony, but for a wild caterpillar that is large. Bryan Helm, UofA

Does the hornworm sting? No, but they will turn around and bite you if you let them. Bryan Helm, UofA

Reading the first paragraph "M. sexta have a short life cycle, lasting about 30 to 50 days. In most areas, M. sexta have about two generations per year, but they can have about three or four generations per year in Florida.[2]" leads me to believe that a year is about 60-100 days, except in Florida. The article continues on to say that eggs hatch a few days after being laid, and I assume that eggs are laid before the parent dies, so what am I missing? —Preceding unsigned comment added by SandyJax (talk • contribs) 15:41, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

You're missing winter. The growing season for plants, and the bugs that eat them, are limited to summer. Livign in Michigan, I do believe the 60-100 days number.

The top picture on the Manduca sexta page shows a hornworm that says Tobacco on the actual page and then Tomato when you click on it. There needs to be some specification to this. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.137.2.234 (talk) 12:37, 17 October 2008 (UTC)

I fixed a sentence in the article that says the aorta appears prior the the final larval instar. It appears at the end of the final larval instar.

Tobacco and Tomato Hornworms should not be merged, as they are different breeds of caterpillar. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ns97 (talk • contribs) 15:34, 3 June 2010 (UTC)

I collected two tobacco hornworms from our lantana bush. They continue to devour lantana foliage in captivity. I haven't found where M. sexta has been reported on lantana? We also have tomato, eggplant, & pepper plants which do not have hornworms.--NavyDad4 (talk) 21:25, 17 July 2011 (UTC)

File:Tobacco Hornworm 1.jpg to appear as POTD soon

Hello! This is a note to let the editors of this article know that File:Tobacco Hornworm 1.jpg will be appearing as picture of the day on May 14, 2012. You can view and edit the POTD blurb at Template:POTD/2012-05-14. If this article needs any attention or maintenance, it would be preferable if that could be done before its appearance on the Main Page so Wikipedia doesn't look bad. :) Thanks! —howcheng {chat} 20:16, 12 May 2012 (UTC)

Picture of the day

The larva of tobacco hornworm (Manduca sexta), a moth that is present throughout much of the Americas. The caterpillars feed on plants of the family Solanaceae, principally tobacco, tomatoes and members of the genus Datura. It is a common model organism, especially in neurobiology, due to its easily accessible nervous system and short life cycle.Photo: Daniel Schwen

I updated two "External links".

The Colorado State and Ohio State links were aged out. I updated them, but if the links don't go to the webpages that the author had in mind, then they need to research them and add the ones they do have in mind. Thank you, Wordreader (talk) 20:03, 31 August 2017 (UTC)

Comments from a Washington University Student Studying Behavioral Ecology: I found this entry to be strong because it has relevant, well explained information that accurately captures common behavior and biology of the larval and moth stages of this species. I loved learning about the larval behavior especially, from wandering (the practice of searching for a ground based burrow) to the thrashing and biting of predators. I also appreciated the parts of the article that discussed the relationship between the insect and tobacco, what kind of specialization was present, and the role the plant had on the moth’s lifecycle. In terms of things that were missing, I would have liked to have seen more about the behavior of the moth adult stage, especially since the behavior section of the article only discusses the larval stage. The behavior that was discussed was interesting but severely limited compared to the large volume of text being devoted to the caterpillar. Although this is fine because of the caterpillar’s importance in research and breeding, it would be valuable to perhaps have more information about the moth’s behavior outside of actual mating, such as presence/absence of roosting or other typical lepidopteran behavior. Even something as simple as a yes/no on nicotine retention in the adult stage would be helpful to curious readers. Alexander Mahmoud (talk) 03:18, 15 September 2017 (UTC)

Range

This article is missing a "Range" section which would seem to be important. -- Otr500 (talk) 22:43, 23 October 2023 (UTC)