Okay…I will mention Mike’s HUGE caterpillar. I found it on a tomato plant in my garden. I was going to get rid of it, but Mike thought it was so beautiful and wanted to keep it in a jar (He actually wanted to lacquer it). The caterpillar eventually outgrew the jar. Then I put it in our “Ladybug Lantern” that we have had ladybugs and even raised Painted Lady butterflies in (from caterpillar to chrysalis, to butterfly, through mating, to eggs, caterpillars, chrysalis, to adult butterfly). The caterpillar is called a tomato hornworm (Manduca quinquemaculata). Since I rescued my tomato plants from it, it has eaten 4 small green tomatoes, and many tomato leaves. I have no idea which larval stage it is in. It’s supposed to burrow into the ground to pupate, so I’m not sure how that will happen since there’s no soil in its indoor habitat.
Find out more about hornworms.

When I first got him off my tomato plant, he looked like this.

After several tomatoes and leaves…

Here is a close-up of his spots.

These are his false-legs.

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