(IMAGE)

Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology

Caption

An insect that lives up to its name because its larvae are insatiable: Manduca sexta (Manduca: Lat. "chewer"). A female Manduca sexta hawkmoth lays eggs on the leaves of a tobacco plant after it has pollinated the tobacco flowers. The putative mutualist then turns into an antagonist, because hungry caterpillars hatch from these eggs.

Credit

Danny Kessler / Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena, Germany

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