Black Hornworm

[ridgebax1]

Has anyone encountered a hornworm of this color. It has a little more green in it as I had run out of hornworm chow and gave them some silkworm chow for a day or so. I have never seen this color before. It came from hornworm egg cups I got from Great Lakes Hornworm.

 

[Chameleon Creator]

That's strange.. I wouldn't feed it to my Cham

 

[ParabuthusKing]

Yes, I have had a few similar from cups of hornworms purchased. Unlike a dying silkworm, I think this is just a different phenotype or coloration pattern of worm. I fed the little bugger off and my guy who ate it showed no ill effect. I wanted to selectively breed for this trait, but with only one worm it was a bit difficult to get a good population base.

 

[ridgebax1]

I was thinking the same thing but never thought about needing a mate! I think I will let it pupate anyway and see if the moth looks any different.

 

[pigglett79]

They can change color based on what they eat. If they eat greens or silk worm chow they get more green and can get darker. When they eat horn worm chow they are the teal color. When I feed them mostly greens they are a bright green color. That one does look a bit off though.

 

[ridgebax1]

It was very very black before I gave them silkworm chow. They were all eatiing the same chow that was in the cup before the eggs hatched! I knew the food contributed to them either being teal or green so I was surprised by this worm. The white markings were striking compared to the black!

 

[qdude46]

Woah, trippy!

 

[DanSB]

It looks like there is a "Dark form" of hornworms. Pretty cool, I didn't know that before!

http://www.whatsthatbug.com/2011/08/02/tomato-hornworm-dark-form/