Re: HYB: verbena moth larvae in pods

Hi Christian:
    I have three books that served me well over the years. . ."Handbook of
Natural Insect and Disease Control" (Rodale Garden Book), "The Encyclopedia of
Natural Insect & Disease Control" by Roger B. Yepsen, Jr., and "Rodale's
Garden Insect, Disease & Weed Identification Guide" by Miranda Smith and Anna
Carr. For your purpose, I would suggest the third book. Great pictures showing
the adult, larva and excellent descriptions of the eggs, where laid and what
they look like.
    And girl, there's the Internet. . . . you have all the libraries in the
entire world at your fingertips!!!
    One, while digging potatoes, I found this large, strange pupa, brown,
about 2 inches long and with a "handle" on it. Fascinating lookin' thing. I
put it in a jar for safe keeping. Well. . .I hit every bug book I had and
found nothing. I turned to two of those little "Golden Guide" books on insects
and insect pests and found out what it was. It was the pupa of the Sphinx
Moth. . . the mother of those big green tomato horn worms! (just in passing,
another bit of information: chickens will NOT eat those big fat hornworms). So
I learned some real good stuff that day! I also learned that a tiny wasp, the
Braconid, lays her eggs on these horned creatures and her babies truly have a
"moving feast." I have some excellent photographs of a hornworm absolutely
loaded with eggs from the Braconid wasp and will post them if you (or anyone)
is interested.
    Now tell me about those black spiders. . . . .*grin

Doris Elevier
USDA zone 7b Sunset 11
El Paso, TX

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@hort.net with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE IRIS
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index