These fellows are two of the 6 or so Tobacco Hornworm caterpillars given to Philip by his Uncle Sterling. They traveled from the Sebastopol area of California up to the 8,000 foot elevation of Lake Alpine, California in one day. On the drive, we stopped in to visit Grandpa Bob and he gave us enough tomato leaves to keep them pretty well fat and sassy until we got back home to Washington a week later. Although called Tobacco Hornworms, they thrive on tomato leaves which are related to Tobacco leaves. Both plants are part of the Nightshade plant family. During the vacation, the 'pillars went into Nevada briefly, then back to California, into Oregon and on to Washington. Of the original six or seven, only three made it long enough to be settled into a little terrarium in Philip's room. They only stayed caterpillars a day or so, then went into their metamorphosis stage. On September 24, 1998, the first of the three chrysalises brought forth a very pretty, tree bark colored moth. As mentioned on the front page, these moths will not be released. To do that would be to introduce an pest that we do not as yet have in this area. We are not going to be the ones to do the introducing.
