nolanframpton's Journal

I am at the falls near elk river
in the picture there is a red cedar and western hemlock tree,

Date: 8/29/20 3:40 PM PST
Location: Clearwater ID
Habitat: running river and medium dense forest in surrounding area with medium ground debris.
Method: caught using hands close to water source, was cool near the river.

Insects: two different ground beetles

When i was around the age of 13 i experienced my first encounter with a tomato Hornworm. I had reached my hand into a tomato plant to get a ripe tomato and i felt something grab my hand and it shocked me and when i pulled my hand out of the plant i had this massive spiky Caterpillar on it and it really surprised me because i had never seen one that large before, luckily my aunt is an entomologist and i was able to have her tell me what it was, a tomato hornworm and they aren't very common anymore where i live. It made me ask the question what kind of factors affect the size of certain insects because there are tiny caterpillars that eat tomato's so why is the tomato hornworm so big in comparison.