[neutronicus]

Finding hawk moth caterpillars on my tomato plant was one of the bigger wtfs of my adult life

[nkozyra]

Honestly you're lucky there were any leaves left.

You must have caught it within two or three hours after its arrival.

In the US we have similar hawk moths; the tomato hornworm also looks like a hummingbird when it reaches maturity.

[empyrrhicist]

Once I started leaving just the ones with parasitoid wasp eggs on their backs in the garden, I completely stopped having problems with these guys.

[jacobolus]

The "hornworm" caterpillars leave amazing poops behind. They look like (not so) little green grenades.

Their moths are important pollinators of some nice native flowers.

[neutronicus]

When I noticed them they were covered in wasp pupae, so maybe that slowed them down.

I'm in the Eastern US, btw.