-Florida .Agricultural. Experiment Station


position. They are also known as hawk-moths because of their
rapid flight, and as humming-bird moths from their habit of
hovering over their favorite blossoms like those birds. They
fly about at dusk, and on very cloudy days, visiting flowers with
long cQrollass.such as jimsonweed and petunias. The body is
very large and in order to carry it the moths move their wings
with great rapidity so that, like the birds, they hum. Another
characteristic is the long proboscis -which is.used to sip the
nectar from the deepest flowers.
 There are two species of sphinx moths most likely to prove
 destructive to tomatoes in Florida. The Southern hornworm
 (P. sexta) (fig. 108) ranges far into South America and is much













 FIG. 108.-Southern hornworm: Moth. Natural size. (From Fla. Agr.
 Exp. Sta. Bul. 48.)

the more common one. According to A. L. Quaintance (Bul.
48, Fla. Agr. Exp. Sta.) this worm is about 6 or 7 times as
numerous in Florida as the other. The Northern tobacco worm
(P. 5-maculata) ranges farther north, and does not occur much
south of the United States. The larvae may be distinguished
by the color of the horn, which is black in P. 5-maculata and red
in P.sexta. (Fig. 109.) The stripes on the sides are also dif-
ferent, being distinct V's in the former.
 The damage done, and the treatment, are the same for
both. The adults lay grayish-yellow, smooth spherical eggs in
the spring, singly on the lower surfaces of leaves. The eggs
measure about 1/28 of an inch in diameter, and hatch in 3 days
into small green larvae. These eat ravenously, grow rapidly,
and molt five times during the 3 weeks that are necessary for
their growth. During this time a single worm will strip a large
tomato plant of leaves. When full grown, the larvae of horn.


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