About Manduca sexta

Manduca sexta is a moth of the family Sphingidae present through much of the Americas. The species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1763 Centuria Insectorum.Commonly known as the Carolina sphinx moth and the tobacco hawk moth (as adults) and the tobacco hornworm and the Goliath worm (as larvae), it is closely related to and often confused with the very similar tomato hornworm (Manduca quinquemaculata); the larvae of both feed on the foliage of various plants of the family Solanaceae. Tobacco hornworms are facultative specialists; the larvae can grow and develop on any host plants. However, the larvae prefer solanaceous plants, such as tobacco and tomato plants.

M. sexta has a short life cycle, lasting about 30 to 50 days. In most areas, M. sexta has about two generations per year M. sexta is a common model organism, especially in neurobiology, due to its easily accessible nervous system and short life cycle.

Picture credit: Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons (Image source) Taxonomy ID 7130

(Text from Wikipedia.)

More information General information about this species can be found in Wikipedia

Taxonomy ID 7130

Data source Department of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University

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